There have been 919 BlazeAid volunteers help property owners clear land and rebuild fences since the camp was set up on January 16, following the catastrophic fire that started on January 7 this year.
Three quarters of those volunteers have been international backpackers.
There are just 25 volunteers left at the camp, which is now based at Creighton’s Creek Hall after moving from Euroa Showgrounds to make way for Euroa’s annual agricultural show.
It’s around half the number of volunteers the camp has regularly seen at any one time in the months preceding the visa changes.
Out of the current 25, 15 volunteers are international backpackers.
“Since the working holiday visa issue has come up in the news, that’s really affected our numbers,” camp co-ordinator Lilydale’s Debra Ong said.
“We’re hearing from backpackers that they’re concerned that by coming to BlazeAid and volunteering for three months, ‘will all that effort end up in a visa?’.”
The Federal Government has overhauled the working holiday maker visa program in an attempt to curb net overseas migration.
Holders of WHM visas have in the past been able to extend their one-year visas to two years when they’ve worked 88 days as a volunteer for disaster recovery, or to three years when they’ve worked 179 days.
Second-year visas will now be capped at 45,000 places, down from 57,000.
Third-year visas will drop from 31,000 to 5000.
Backpackers will now also have to enter a regional work ballot system to qualify for second- and third-year visa extensions, and processing time will be around three months.
Edison Qin, from China, has been travelling in Australia for around four months.
He has visited Queensland and spent time in Melbourne city before arriving to work at the Longwood BlazeAid camp a few weeks ago.
“I saw the post our co-ordinator put on Facebook,” Mr Qin said.
“She wants more volunteers to join Longwood to help the farmers to recover from the wildfire and it can extend my second-year visa, so I think there’s a good chance to learn a lot of skills like how to do fencing and make a lot of friends.”
Mr Qin is from Wuhan, the biggest city in central China.
“It’s quite different being out in the country here,” he said.
He is uncertain whether his visa will be extended.
While his volunteer work has not been wasted because he has enjoyed helping and upskilled, the days spent with BlazeAid could cut into his trip, rather than extend it as he had hoped.
Ms Ong said the visa changes were the biggest issue BlazeAid faced currently.
“It’s a huge benefit the working holiday visa people put into the Australian economy,” she said.
“They don’t take away from it, they don’t get any benefits, they have to pay their own travel insurance, their own medical care, they’ve got to pay their own way, so there’s no cost on the Australian pocket.”
With 332 properties in the area registered with BlazeAid, including 100 yet to see any work start and many to still help finish off their boundaries, there’s plenty of work left and people power needed to complete it.
“We’re trying to build up our volunteer numbers so that we get this fire ground looked after before any other fire starts,” Ms Ong said.
A post on BlazeAid Australia’s Facebook page suggested the visa changes would also result in fruit not being picked, cows not being milked and crops not taken off, as WHM visa holders would not want “jump through hoops” and navigate “cumbersome/bureaucratic ballots” due to uncertainty and inconvenience.
"The WHM visa volunteers are given accommodation and food and help us recover from fires and floods with zero negative impacts on Australia whatsoever, just 100 per cent benefit,“ the post said.
“Farmers also provide the accommodation and food for our WHMs so they can volunteer for 88 days in declared disaster regions and so get their one-year visa to travel Australia — there is zero negatives on housing here.”
The post also suggested “huge duress and higher food prices” would result, as well as farmer “deaths, suicides and depression from the sheer workload stress of not having WHM help”.
If you’re interested in volunteering with BlazeAid, even if you only have a day or a weekend to spare, you can sign up on the BlazeAid website.
“Any time is valuable, if you’ve even only got one day. One day is a big help,” Ms Ong said.
“If you’ve got a lot of people coming on one day, that’s going to make a big difference.”
All that’s required is a reasonable level of fitness and the ability and willingness to work in a team.
