Recovery information
Help is available for people impacted by the February 2024 Western Victorian bushfires.
We can help you with things like:
- insurance claims and legal matters
- financial support
- mental health and wellbeing
- finding local services in your area.
You can call the Emergency Recovery Hotline on 1800 560 760.
If you’ve been affected by a different emergency, there are general services that can provide you with help or advice.
Recovery services, wellbeing and support
Find out more about the support, advice and counselling available as you and your family recover from storms, bushfires or floods.
Recovery progress
Dry, hot and windy conditions combined with thunderstorms and lightning resulted in fires across western Victorian in February 2024. The fires were centered around the Grampians National Park, destroying 46 homes.
During this time, eastern and central Victoria also experienced a large-scale storm event, resulting in damage to homes and properties.
We worked closely with local councils and the community to provide recovery support including the Recovery Support program and clean-up support.
Recovery snapshot
- 6,000+calls to the Emergency Recovery Hotline (fire and storm)
- 75+ clean-up registrations
- 550+households connected with recovery support
Emergency Recovery Hotline
The Emergency Recovery Hotline received more than 6,000 calls following the February 2024 Victorian fires and storms. Callers were referred to programs based on their needs including assistance connecting to Recovery Support.
Recovery Support program
The Recovery Support program continues to help people impacted by the Western Victorian bushfires. So far, more than 550 people have accessed information to support their recovery journey.
Clean-up program
Homes that were damaged by the bushfires, and were not covered by insurance, were demolished for free through the Clean-up Program.
The program worked to demolish or remove hazardous trees from 49 homes, allowing people to focus their efforts and resources on rebuilding. The program helped to ensure that hazardous materials, like asbestos, could be cleaned up and disposed of safely by qualified professionals.
We also worked with Disaster Relief Australia to coordinate volunteers to clean up bushfire impacted properties. Disaster Relief Australia completed over 100 clean-up jobs in Pomonal during Operational Wettenhall. One hundred and forty volunteers worked alongside our clean-up crews, delivering over 7,800 hours of work making a significant difference to the Pomonal community following the February 2024 Victorian bushfires.
Next steps
We continue to work with the local council and community to support their recovery.
We acknowledge the impact of the Grampians fires – starting in December 2024 – on the community, so soon after the damage caused by February 2024 Western Victorian bushfires.
We are committed to ensuring recovery support that focuses on the most pressing needs of people and communities.
Donate
If you would like to support those affected by the Victorian bushfires, you can donate through the not-for-profit donation service GIVIT(opens in a new window).
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