Fire-affected residents of Oberne Creek have been told they will have to wait a little while longer to be eligible for any government assistance.
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The small rural town south of Tarcutta was badly hit by the Dunns Road fire as it tore through the region the week after Christmas.
But residents have not been given the approval to receive any relief funding because an official disaster category has not been recognised for the Wagga local government area.
At a meeting of residents in the community on Thursday night, Wagga mayor Greg Conkey revealed the estimates of what has been lost to the fires.
He said he knew of 8300 hectares that had been burnt in the Wagga LGA, which spans across 43 properties and includes at least 400km of fencing.
He also said that there had been a "horrifying loss of between 1300 and 1500 animals", across the same area.
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Independent state member for Wagga, Dr Joe McGirr has been vocal in the past week saying he would seek to have fire-affected parts of the LGA re-classified as disaster areas.
But on Thursday night, he fronted the gathering of residents and said that he had not yet heard the outcome.
"Unfortunately, I don't come with news on the disaster category," Dr McGirr told the gathering.
"I'm assured that there is no reason that this area would not be given eligibility, but unfortunately I can't deliver news on that."
Since launching the application last Friday, Dr McGirr said he had received repeated confirmation from both the deputy premier John Barilaro and the state's disaster recovery co-ordinator, Dick Adams, that the classification would be decided this week.
But, he acknowledged the decision has to be channelled through the Commonwealth recovery agencies before anything is approved or announced.
It comes even after the federal office of natural disaster and emergency management officially extended the bushfire-affected category to include the Greater Hume and Snowy Monaro local government areas.
Also in attendance at Thursday night's meeting was the regional emergency management co-ordinator attached to the NSW Police, Owen Plowman.
Mr Plowman told the crowd of 50 residents that he expected a disaster classification would be imminent.
"We've been told [Oberne] either will be declared, or it will be added as a buffer zone on the Snowy Mountains declaration," Mr Plowman said.
"If it's not the whole of Wagga, then it will only pertain to the 40-odd properties that have been affected by the fire."
Dr McGirr confirmed that the declaration would likely apply only to those residents who had been touched by the fire.
"People who have had 80 to 90 per cent of their property destroyed deserve to be given the same help as those who have seen the same in the Snowy Valleys," he said.
Marilyn Starr has lived in the community for the past 11 years.
While she estimates about 50 per cent of her 140-hectare property was destroyed by the fire, she shared concerns for her neighbours who have been impacted in the aftermath.
Should the community become a 'buffer zone' on the Snowy Mountains declaration, she said it would penalise those who have had to deal with subsequent "sustained damage".
"The fires burnt the ground covering, there is now no grass or trees to capture the rain as it comes down, so the water is cascading, collecting debris and dumping it in creeks and crossways, and taking down fences as it goes," Ms Starr said.
"The ground is so hot and damaged there's nothing there to slow the rain down."
After an extended dry period, the community received a downpour on Monday of up to 20mm in some areas.
The fire ravaged landscape proved incapable of soaking up the falls, which resulted in ash-filled rivers flowing down the hills, onto roads, into creeks and waterways.
Ms Starr thanked the various government and community agencies and politicians that turned out to address their concerns and said that she has felt reassured that all is being done to rectify the problem.
But she wanted to stress the importance of recognising the plight of her neighbours who had not felt the fire's touch.
"We only had about an inch of rain, but it took down two of our fences," she said.
"It's going to get worse with the next big rain, and it'll be like this for at least the next 12 months. It's an offshoot issue, we've had fires now we'll have floods.
"They may not be on the burnt map, but they need to be included with any help we get."