Highlands homestead destroyed by fire

The main homestead on the Triffett family’s historic central highlands property, Half Moon Marsh, was destroyed in a fire on Thursday.

An electrical fault near a freezer is suspected to be the cause, although investigation is ongoing, and the house was all but gutted.

Occupants Sophie Birchall and her nan Ellen Triffett, who featured recently in Tas Country with their cattle, were not home at the time.

Ellen’s son Harry, who lives nearby, called in to feed some hay to the sheep and noticed smoke coming from within and alerted the fire brigade.

In a desperate bid to save at least some of the homestead, made up of two relocated former hydro village homes joined together, he tried in vain to drag one section away by the bearers while locals did what they could to douse the house with water using tractor pumps and hoses.

By the time local fire brigades arrived at the remote location, about 45 minutes from Miena near Bronte Park, the weatherboard and tin structure, which contained 10 bedrooms, a huge central family room and various other living areas, was engulfed.

Ellen was in New Norfolk to buy supplies at the time of the fire and Sophie is away working at a feed lot in Bordertown, South Australia.

About 10 working dogs at the farm were all found safe and well.

Great Lake Fire Brigade chief Colin Triffitt said that it was impossible to save the house due to time and distance and limited human resources.

Two volunteers turned out from the Gretna Fire Brigade, three from Bothwell, two from Brady’s Lake, one from Highlands Lake group, four from Great Lake Brigade, one from Midlands District group, and they were assisted by two firefighters from TasNetworks.

Two ambulances also attended and one person was treated for a cut hand and smoke inhalation.

“Unfortunately there was little that could be done,” Mr Triffitt said.

“It was well alight when we arrived and really our role was to extinguish the remaining flames and cool down the site so that the cause of the fire could be investigated.

“We were called back to a flare-up in one corner later in the day.”

The house was uninsured and among the extensive contents lost in the fire were precious photos, a large collection of prize mounted deer heads that had been hunted by generations of the family, a sizable amount of cash, family heirloom jewellery and multiple freezers full of meat.

A $15,000 renovation and new white goods had recently been added in the kitchen.

Butchering and mincing equipment worth more than $5000 was also lost in the fire.

Used by the extended Triffett family, rooms full of belongings were destroyed, including the furniture and toys used by grandchildren.

A GoFundMe page has been started to try to cover the expense of replacing some of the necessities at https://gofund.me/5aca286c6

Ellen Triffett, 69, said that she had lived in the house her entire life and raised her four children, John, Brian, Amy and Harry on the farm.

She said the local community had been wonderful offering their support.

“I only had the clothes I was wearing, and I was lucky to find a brooch my son gave me in a medicine chest that survived the fire,” she said.

“But it’s devastating, and I was looking forward to having the grandchildren over in the school holidays - you can tell they’re shocked even though they’re so young,” she said.

“I’m determined to stay on the land - there’s an old, abandoned house on the property and I even thought about going back into it but for now I’m living with Harry and John is a builder so my aim will be to rebuild.”