Victorian farmers are still battling to clean up their properties after the Black Summer fires more than a year ago.

But one group of landholders in East Gippsland is taking advantage of a program to recycle tonnes of burnt timber into valuable fencing.

It is 14 months since bushfires destroyed swathes of land and more than 450 homes in Gippsland and Victoria's north east, and the damage is still evident in the tired faces of bushfire survivors and the blackened trees still scarring the landscape.

After the fires, farmers prioritised reinstating boundary fences and crucial internal farm fences to keep livestock in, however for many there is still a lot of expensive and time-consuming clean-up work ahead.

The timber from the fallen trees is too valuable to burn as firewood, so a group of Rotary and Lions clubs raised $200,000 to provide a mobile mill to help farmers make use of the wood.

They are using the mobile mill to turn the fallen trees into valuable hardwood fencing posts and rails.

One year on

When the fires arrived at Ingrid Biram's Sarsfield property just before midnight on New Year's Eve 2019, it took four people an hour and a half to save her home, tractors and vehicles.

"We just tried to protect the assets, like the cars and the tractors and sheds," Ms Biram said.

"We had two firefighter pumps hooked up to two concrete tanks, and that was just enough water to save it."

The rest of the property burnt, including fences and cattle yards.

"Most of the farmers I've been talking to stayed and defended their home. They probably were in the same situation as us — they had insurance on their home and they saved it.

"But I don't know many farmers who had [more] insurance because it's just far too expensive for their fencing."

A friend lent Ms Biram and her husband a mobile timber mill. They used it to cut fence posts and have also cut timber for cattle yards.

The trees in Ms Biram's paddocks were "too good" to cut into firewood. She said the posts they cut were of a higher quality than the softwood ones available for purchase commercially.

Expanding to East Gippsland

Ms Biram recruited the help of local Rotary and Lions clubs to expand the idea and purchase a mill for use on other properties.

"We thought, 'This is such a basic concept, wouldn't it be good if we could replicate the idea and go out and help other farmers that have been burnt?'" she said.

"The enormity of trying to get back on track and establish your business to what it was is a huge project."

Twenty-two per cent of the area burnt in East Gippsland last summer was agricultural land, and 10,000 head of livestock perished.

Since the fires, the East Gippsland Shire Council has issued 59 planning permits for dwellings.

Checking in on farmers' mental health

The idea is an "absolute gem" according to the Mitchell River Rotary Club's immediate past president, Bernie Farquhar.

"There are stockyards and thousands of kilometres of internal fencing that now need to be replaced, and the farmer has gone through three years of drought and now COVID," Mr Farquhar said.

"We could get in contact with a farmer, get the gear out there and have a chat about how he's going and what he's doing.

"To me, that was equally as important as being able to get the fencing materials."

Mr Farquhar said the project would help boost the spirits of people living in East Gippsland.

"This is not over. It's a long way from being over and there's a lot of work that needs to be done."