{"id":505632,"date":"2026-01-10T07:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T07:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/505632\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T07:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T07:26:17","slug":"harcourt-residents-assessing-damage-after-more-than-50-structures-lost-in-ravenswood-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/505632\/","title":{"rendered":"Harcourt residents assessing damage after more than 50 structures lost in Ravenswood fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ravenswood fire ignited on Friday, and of the 10 major fires burning across Victoria, it has so far proven the most destructive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Saturday morning, authorities said it had claimed at least 50 structures, many of them in Harcourt, north-east of Castlemaine in Victoria’s Central Highlands.<\/p>\n

Australia heatwave live updates<\/a>: Read our blog for the latest news as out-of-control bushfires burn and temperatures soar for a fourth day.<\/p>\n

Authorities have warned that number is likely to grow, as crews continue to assess the damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

David Fiddelaers is one of Harcourt’s 1,000 or so residents, and lives with his wife and six children on a property in the town’s north.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He learned about the fire on Friday afternoon, and at first thought he would help the Country Fire Authority (CFA) \u2014 but soon realised the blaze could threaten his own property.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You could see the smoke getting bigger, and then eventually we saw the flames on the ridge, on the western side of the Calder Freeway,” he said.<\/p>\n

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David Fiddelaers stayed to defend his property.\u00a0 (Supplied: David Fiddelaers)<\/p>\n

A short time later, \u00a0the sheep and chicken farmer said goodbye to his family after they packed their bags and evacuated, leaving him to defend the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We were three or four kilometres from the fire front, but then the wind changed and it came almost directly for us,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“That became a little bit more scary \u2014 it crossed the freeway and came into our neighbour’s paddock.”<\/p>\n

Just as the fire was approaching, the CFA managed to create a firebreak.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The blaze ended up coming within 50 metres of Mr Fiddelaers’s fence line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I feel very lucky, and there’s sort of an eerie feeling now, the fire is out of sight and there’s only little bits of smoke,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"62fb338d-e689-429f-9768-a3d274b3450b\"<\/p>\n

David Fiddelaers said he watched on as the fire came within 50m of his property in Harcourt North.\u00a0 (Supplied: David Fiddelaers)<\/p>\n

A black hill<\/p>\n

Harcourt sits at the foot of Mount Alexander Regional Park, which resident Judy Gleeson described as a “glowing mess” after the fire tore through the town and entered the park’s thick bushland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s waist deep with undergrowth and trees in there,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She evacuated with her dog on Friday, packing a photo of her mother, her expired passport and food for her dog.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Judy Gleeson’s home was saved, but she says most of the people on her street weren’t as lucky.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Sitting at the southern edge of the fire, Ms Gleeson’s home and her neighbour’s home were both saved by the CFA, but the rest of her street was destroyed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“All the houses behind me are gone, I’m going to be looking out onto a black hill,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.<\/p>\n

Her business, the Woop Woop Sculpture Park, was also saved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That’s lovely, but s***, the whole town looks pretty c***,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"brnt<\/p>\n

The community’s cool stores cooperative was leveled by the blaze.\u00a0 (ABC News: Josie Taylor)<\/p>\n

‘Pretty horrific’<\/p>\n

Harcourt resident Bruce Rae considers himself “one of the lucky ones”.<\/p>\n

He returned to his home on Saturday morning, after learning his property and his cattle had been spared by the blaze, which tore through the town following what he called a “fairly dry year.”<\/p>\n

“I’ve got a couple of dear friends who have lost everything, so they’re not faring too well,” Mr Rae said, becoming emotional.<\/p>\n

“It was pretty horrific”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

It is not yet known how many homes have been lost in Harcourt.\u00a0 (ABC News: Josie Taylor)<\/p>\n

He said one of the town’s major employers, the Harcourt Cooperative Cool Stores, had been badly affected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It holds hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of supplies and products for growers.<\/p>\n

“It’s been pretty hit-and-miss but there’s a lot of buildings that have gone and a lot of farms have gone,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Rae said.<\/p>\n

Coolstore Road was hit hard, with a number of homes in the area and a cafe also destroyed.<\/p>\n

“It’s a bit devastating,” Mr Rae said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more about the heatwave:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ravenswood fire ignited on Friday, and of the 10 major fires burning across Victoria, it has so…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":505633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,112922,34659,38412,226467,5025,226469,316,421,84025,50,104279,226468,225463,8515],"class_list":["post-505632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-bushfire","tag-damaged","tag-destroyed","tag-extreme-fire-danger","tag-fire","tag-harcourt","tag-home","tag-homes","tag-longwood","tag-news","tag-ravenswood","tag-razed","tag-total-fire-ban","tag-victoria"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115869619732334592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}