Batlow is a little town with a big heart, but community leaders are calling for more help to deal with the bushfire disaster.

Key points: A local councillor is concerned about people missing out on assistance because they think others are worse off

A local councillor is concerned about people missing out on assistance because they think others are worse off Growers want government help to improve the town's apple packing shed, with the community 100 per cent reliant on the apple industry

Growers want government help to improve the town's apple packing shed, with the community 100 per cent reliant on the apple industry The local timber industry welcomes a decision not to privatise the Forestry Corporation

The town of 1,500 people in the Riverina district of New South Wales was devastated by fire in early January.

Snowy Valley Council councillor Margaret Isslemann is deeply concerned about the future.

A lot of workers had left after the fires when orchards were burnt just before harvest.

"It could be another three years before those jobs return," she said.

While Councillor Isslemann believes the Red Cross has done a good job supporting people affected by the fires, she was worried about people falling "through the cracks".

"A lot of funding has been raised, but very little has been delivered."

Some people were too proud to ask for assistance, some were being incorrectly assessed in her view, and others were just not applying because they felt there were others worse off.

A large number of people needed help, Councillor Isslemann said, and many had missed out altogether.

"We've lost 16 homes in the town — 120 have been impacted by fire — and that doesn't take into account the incredible devastation in the rural community," she said.

Government money wanted for the apple industry

Apple grower Michael Smart is worried about the future.

He saved his house but lost many of his fruit trees and 10 to 15 per cent of the fruit on them.

Mr Smart wants more government assistance, but not for himself.

Batlow is the only place in NSW that still has its own apple packing shed and he wants government funding to improve it.

"The biggest thing is to keep the town viable because it relies 100 per cent on apples," he said.

Not waiting for insurance

Ralph Wilson lost 3,000 bottles of apple cider and $100,000 worth of cherries unable to be picked and sold. ( ABC Rural: Cara Jeffery )

Ralph Wilson from Willgro Orchards grows cherries as well as apples and makes cider and vinegar to sell at his roadside stall and markets.

The Rural Fire Service (RFS) managed to save his roadside stall but the cider shed, where he made vinegar, was burnt out along with his binning and irrigation sheds, dripper lines, and his orchard.

"It was a big hit, but there are a lot of people worse off than us," Mr Wilson said.

He has started the clean-up even though insurance money has not yet come through.

"We're doing a fair bit ourselves because we just can't wait for insurance," he said.

"The fruit trees are not covered and the cost of cover for hail net is too expensive. We have to wear that, but the government came good with a grant so we'll get back about half."

Ralph Wilson inspects his fire-damaged trees — the Bravo variety was worst hit and some trees will have to be removed while others are showing signs they may recover. ( ABC Rural: Cara Jeffery )

$4 million bill to replace trees

Grower Ian Cathles lost 8 hectares of apple trees at his property, Ardrossan Orchards, and said it would cost him $500,000 per hectare to replace them.

The fire came out of state forests, burnt through his orchard, and erased his grazing country.

He lost 700 cross-bred lambs, 100 head of black baldy cattle, and 20,000 trees.

"Cleaning up was horrific; my own children were involved and even to this day it still affects you," Mr Cathles said.

Thirty per cent of his trees were affected by fire and, with picking about to start, the fruit will be sparse.

These Bravo apples are Ralph Wilson's best returning variety but were among the worst hit in the Batlow fire. ( ABC Rural: Cara Jeffery )

Greg Mouat, a board member on the Batlow Apples grower group, also lost trees in the fire.

"We lost 2.5 hectares of orchard and had a considerable amount of damage to netting and machinery," he said.

He said returning to full production would take a long time.

"We have to source the trees, which will take two and a half years, and then it will be five years before they're productive," he said.

Tumbarumba timber worries

In nearby Tumbarumba, the Hyne Timber mill is back at work.

It is the biggest timber mill in the southern hemisphere and, while it has a supply of burnt logs it can process in the short term, a massive 25 per cent of the forestry reserve has been burnt and the long-term supply of timber is a big concern.

The NSW Government announced today that it would not privatise the Forestry Corporation and indicated it would focus on replanting the plantations.

That decision was welcomed by the chief executive officer of Hyne Timber, John Kleinschmidt.

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"It's one less distraction for us, our focus is on recovery," he said.

The corporation is one of the company's largest suppliers and Mr Kleinschmidt said he preferred to deal with them rather than a privatised entity.

There is also concern in the community about the fire risk associated with plantations.

John and Ian Robson run the Flemington limousin stud and Mount View Orchards in Adelong.

Half of their property was burnt by fires coming out of timber plantations.

January fires burnt much of the Riverina town of Batlow and the recovery in this apple growing district will take many years. ( ABC Rural: Cara Jeffery )

John Robson, a rural fire service captain, managed to save his livestock and defend his orchards but it was an intense blaze.

"Things were tinder dry, but to see the way it burnt through the pines, to see it travel as far as it did in such a short period of time … I hope we don't see it again," he said.

Mr Kleinschmidt said the problem was not the plantations but the "catastrophic" fire conditions that day.

"It wasn't only in Tumbarumba. There were multiple events in multiple areas, so resources were quite stretched. But the volunteers did a fantastic job protecting the town and the mill was protected."

Twenty-two staff at the mill are in the RFS and helped defend the town.

Four of them lost their own homes.

Long road to recovery

Blazeaid has been a massive help with the clean-up, putting in fences, and getting irrigation lines back to the trees.

Mr Wilson said tourists were also coming from everywhere carrying empty eskies.

"We're really busy every weekend with people from Wagga, Canberra, and everywhere, which is great," he said.

It was the support of people around him that inspired Mr Cathles to rebuild.

He has been on his family farm for 32 years and said he would need many more years to recover from this fire.

"I've got a lot of great staff around me, we're getting on with the job, and hopefully one day life will be a little bit more normal," he said.