Rural
9 April, 2026
Fire-hit farmer faces fresh fuel uncertainty
Michael Sudholz is speaking from experience when he says the current fuel shortages and the uncertainty surrounding his cropping program this year are yet more challenges he has to deal with.
The Sudholz family home was razed to the ground on January 9 during the Grass Flat fires, and they are now living in temporary accommodation.
But he said the many miracles and the lives that were saved outweigh anything he lost.
“It’s tough, though,” said the fourth‑generation farmer.
“We have enough fuel to begin our sowing program, but we’ll need more to continue.”
Farmers like Mr Sudholz are facing at least four to five years before their scorched paddocks produce the yields they were getting before the fires, based on research and experiments he carried out on burnt ground in the past.
Now they are dealing with the uncertainty of escalating fuel and fertiliser costs.
“Price is one thing, but availability is another, and we have no clear answers about how long this will last or whether we’ll be able to get supplies,” Mr Sudholz said.
This comes on top of three months spent dealing with insurance assessors, living away from the farm, and now fuel shortages just as they are trying to get back on top of everything that has happened.
“It’s tough going. It’s just one foot in front of the other. That’s all we can do,” he said.
“When you see people on television say they left with only the shirt on their back after a fire, well… we know what that feels like now.
“We have only what we were wearing, but we have our lives, and that means everything.”
Mr Sudholz has been overwhelmed by the care and compassion his family has received from the Natimuk community and surrounding areas.
“It’s really overwhelming, and I believe that’s what helps us get up each day.”
The fuel crisis is no surprise to Mr Sudholz, who says he saw it coming over the past seven or eight years.
“We have left ourselves vulnerable,” he said.
“We don’t have supplies, we don’t manufacture, and so we rely on overseas exports for so much.
"We’ve done this to ourselves.”
He has tried to secure as much fuel and fertiliser as he can, along with his son Kane, who is now the fifth generation on the family farm, but there is still so much uncertainty.
He was quick to acknowledge his fellow farmers who have also lost homes and farming infrastructure.
“We are just getting hammered from all sides at the moment," Mr Sudholz said.
He also feels for those who chose not to buy fuel before the crisis because they believed the prices were too high, only to now find themselves without any, and facing even higher costs if they can get some at all.
“It’s bad,” he said.
Mr Sudholz said that after the fire, they ploughed their paddocks to save the topsoil, but in hindsight, they perhaps should have saved the fuel for sowing. The topsoil is valuable.
At the time, he said, they simply didn’t know what they know now.
Beyond fuel, fertiliser and rainfall, he is also deeply concerned about the health impacts this crisis is having on his community - especially coming so soon after the fire - and on others across the state facing similar situations.
He believes there is little understanding within government about the agricultural industry, its value, or what it takes to manage the seasons, and now these compounding crises.
“The trouble is, we don’t have the votes to pressure the government in a situation like this, and now we have the mines coming in competing with our staff," Mr Sudholz said.
“We, the agricultural industry, are just getting hammered on all sides."
While life is a day-to-day process at the moment, he is not keen to look too far ahead.
He said the fuel crisis must be sorted before harvest, or “what will we do?”
