Worst of Mother Nature: Lindsay Park lose seven horses to fire

Cover image courtesy of Wandong Fire Brigade

At lunchtime on Sunday, there were 32 fires still active across Victoria. The Longwood fire had burnt through 420,000 acres with a perimetre of over 400 kilometres. Over 130 structures had been lost including homes belonging to trainer Ben Hayes and Magic Millions' Victoria and Tasmania manager Tim Brown. Lindsay Park made the sad announcement on Sunday morning that seven horses had died of fire related injuries.

“It’s saddening to hear that seven horses have lost their lives,” said Jamie Stier, Racing Victoria’s Executive General Manager of Integrity Services.

“They’re the only loss of life that we’ve been made aware of. All the people associated with the equine facilities, there’s been no injuries sustained that we’ve been made aware of, that’s pleasing.”

Victorian Police reported on Sunday afternoon that the body of a person had been found near Seymour. “Police were able to access a fire-affected stretch off Yarck Road at Gobur this afternoon. The person is yet to be formally identified,” said the police report. An earlier death in Harcourt on Saturday has been deemed to be unrelated to the fires.

Lindsay Park announces seven deaths

On Sunday, Lindsay Park announced that seven horses on their property had died of fire-related injuries. “Lindsay Park can confirm that seven horses have tragically been lost from injuries sustained in the fire. Five were spelling racehorses, and two were retirees. One additional horse remains in a critical condition and is receiving intensive veterinary care. All owners directly affected have been notified,” said the release. The names of the horses have yet to be released.

The farm’s staff, community members, and the CFA managed to save 320 horses as fire devastated their property. “Eight per cent of the property is irrigated and that eight per cent is still standing,” Sophie Steel, the general manager of Lindsay Park, told racing.com.

“The irrigated areas are all our key infrastructure and tracks; everything else is gone. Sadly, I can report we’ve lost seven horses. Five of those are racehorses, two of them are retirees. We had 30 retirees on the farm, the rest of which are being stabled here at Inglis and cared for.

“There are 320 horses that are safe. When our fire plan was enacted, the focus was solely on saving horses, and we were able to save 320 of them. It was quite emotional for us watching float after float of all our competitors come to pick up and evacuate our horses here,” she said.

“We’ve seen the worst of mother nature in the last three days, and the best of humanity. Our community, there is nothing like it. We are very grateful.”

Inglis house over 200 horses

Inglis opened their doors at the Oaklands facility for horses requiring evacuation. The eight stable barns can accommodate up to 800 horses.

“As of this morning, we had 222 horses (at Inglis), and with conditions in the fires seemingly stabilised, we don’t expect there to be an increase in that number. Some owners have already decided to take their horses home, noting that their properties are no longer in damage. We would expect our numbers to drop over the next week,” Inglis Victorian Bloodstock Manager James Price told TTR on Sunday.

“There are no horses at Inglis that require veterinary treatment. Any horse at Inglis is getting the appropriate care, and any horse that requires veterinary treatment is in the best care of veterinarians at clinics.”

The Inglis Premier Yearling Sale will be held from March 1 to March 3, giving the team at Oaklands plenty of time to shift from evacuation centre mode into sales mode. “There’s plenty of time to get organised.”

When asked about the logistics of having so many horses arrive at once, Price pointed to their current sale yard practices. “It’s exactly the same process. At the Premier Sale, we would have 800 horses arriving on the complex within a three-day window, so the process of horses arriving from the fire disaster areas was no different. We are fortunate that staff, truck drivers, Inglis staff, everyone knows how to do this, so it’s been seamless.

“In this whole disaster, human nature means everyone swings into action and we do the best we can for our horses.”

Blue Gum Farm evacuate 350 horses

Blue Gum Farm have evacuated 350 horses from their property over the past three days. This was done with a skeleton staff as many of their staff are at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale where they have a draft of 13 yearlings.

They provided an update on Sunday on social media. “The CFA (Country Fire Authority) has done an amazing job containing the line and digging trenches to help stop the fire from reaching the town of Euroa and Blue Gum Farm. The temperatures have dropped slightly, but unfortunately the wind has a mind of its own. With the continued high fire danger warning for today, our area is still on “Watch and Act.”,” said the release.

“Our remaining on-farm team members moved over 350 horses over 48 hours with the help of industry and community members. This is no small feat. They were exhausted, tired, but were still able to put a smile on their face once the job had been completed.”

All fences gone at Leneva Park

Mick Sharkie at Leneva Park talked to TTR on Sunday and puts their ability to evacuate and keep safe all their staff and horses down to an effective bushfire plan. “It’s been an unbelievably tough time for everyone. Our team were essentially horse staff fighting a major bush fire. The CFA were incredibly stretched, we had one with us for the duration but they had to use our water supplies, as they could not get access to all of their gear. We were amateur fighters fighting a professional fight, we were really up against it,” Sharkie said.

“We spent a lot of time last year writing up our fire plan and I am glad that we did. We linked with a lot of the neighbouring properties and formed a phone tree, which was very handy, a quick way where we could identify safe havens, and that tool proved essential and invaluable.”

The CFA has a bushfire planning service on their website.

Another resource for a similar planning service can be found on the NSW Rural Fire Service website for free.

“The whole situation changed so quickly, on Thursday we had TV crews with us at lunchtime and literally five minutes later they were running into cars and running away from fire. Things happened that quick. The wind changed with fury.”

The property is still not safe, although Sharkie and his team are hoping to move into an assessment and clean up stage soon. “We are now in assessment phase, but it is still not safe right now with Eucalyptus trees still on fire and hot spots. We can’t start clean-up until insurance has looked at things.

“We have lost 99% of our fences, the paddocks have been scorched. We have been lucky in terms of the main block and barns having no major damage at the moment, and aren’t that far off being operational.

“The fire burnt within three feet of the houses, but miraculously the wind changed and they remained unscathed.”

Community support was the key to saving all the horses. “Amongst all the emergency, the support has been unbelievable. I can’t stress enough how good the North East Equine Emergency WhatsApp group has been," he added.

"It’s being managed by Kayley Johnson, Troy Corstens, and Megan McGrath. They were absolutely incredible regarding the horse movements. Troy has done an incredible job co-ordinating from the Gold Coast while looking at horses.

“We have moved hundreds of horses, and while a lot of the professional horse trucks are on the Gold Coast, we have been using trainer’s trucks, three-horse floats, anything really.

“We will get there, my focus now is on keeping our staff employed, keeping them safe and with a roof over their heads. We need to keep them going, safe, and employed.”

Relief package includes $10 million for feed

The Federal Government and Victorian State Government announced a jointly-funded $19.5 million relief package for people affected by the Victorian bushfires. This consists of $10 million for feed for livestock with the remainer going to assist with personal relief payments, temporary accommodation and other needs such as mental health assistance.

“This package of funding will assist primary producers with the extraordinary costs of undertaking fodder distribution to ensure humane treatment of stranded livestock,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told abc.net.au.

Racing Victoria offers assistance

Racing Victoria reminded participants about their mental health help line. “Racing Victoria would like to remind all racing participants of the availability of support services such as Stableline, which offers free and strictly confidential mental health and wellbeing support to industry participants and their immediate family members. Call 1300 520 122 at any time to book a face-to-face, telephone or online appointment,” RV said on social media.