Cattle farmer identified as person who died in Longwood bushfire

Maxwell Hobson lived a more adventurous life than most. For more than three decades, the engineer worked in mining and project management companies in Australia and South America.

But it was the tiny farming hamlet of Terip Terip in central Victoria that he finally decided to call home.

On Sunday, police found his remains on a scorched patch of road.

Hobson died attempting to drive down the windy, heavily forested stretch known as “the cutting” as the out-of-control Longwood bushfire came closer.

Country Fire Authority crews had warned him on Thursday to leave before the blaze arrived, but Hobson stayed, despite his wife evacuating to the nearby town of Alexandra.

On Monday, his burnt four-wheel-drive still sat on the embankment. The roof on the driver’s side appeared to have been partially crushed.

His cattle were scattered after trying to survive the blaze. Some had to be put down, while others were being cared for by locals.

In the tiny farming community, where everyone knows everyone, the losses caused by the ferocious fire were being felt tenfold, as stories of devastation began to emerge.

Homes reduced to a chimney and twisted tin sat across the road from undamaged farms. In paddocks, dead cows lay scattered, their charred bodies swelling in the heat.

At least one resident was found sheltering in a dam, their phone held above their head, as the fire tore through the area.

Residents worried about falling tree limbs drove in a convoy, avoiding the canopy-covered roads.

CFA captain Shannon Roach returned on Sunday afternoon to find her house of 10 years and most of her belongings lost.

Underneath the caved-in tin roof, a blackened spiral staircase sat by the charred springs of what was once a couch. Other unidentifiable objects covered the floor.

Her tractor, cattle and cattle yards were miraculously spared. So was a wooden gazebo, a pair of plastic chairs and wine barrels in the yard.

“You think, ‘I need this tool, or I need that tool. I’ll just duck home and grab it.’ And of course, there’s no house to come home to,” Roach said.

Roach, who grew up in the Dandenong Ranges, said she had never seen a fire like this. Some locals who fought the Black Saturday fires in 2009 said this fire was worse than the blaze at Kinglake.

“There are some properties here that you think they would never burn that we did lose,” she said.

“It’s gone so quick. It’s jumped over certain paddocks. I do not understand how certain things have survived and others haven’t. There’s no rhyme or reason to it.”

Roach said the fire completely ravaged “the cutting” where Hobson’s remains were found. He and his wife lived on a 101-hectare property nearby, where they bred and sold cattle.

Some in Terip Terip felt they had been left to fend for themselves, and authorities were yet to visit the fire-affected community on Monday to provide support.

Many were relying on the goodwill of others for basic items such as stock feed and relief accommodation.

“There has been no official person who has come to this area and said, ‘What do you need? How are you?’” Jen Murphy said.

Murphy, who lives in Melbourne during the week, last week helplessly watched as flames burnt metres away from her Terip Terip farm on a live feed.

“I felt sick. I was really worried about our stock,” she said.

A North West Mooroopna CFA team managed to stop the inferno from destroying her house, but the fire caused extensive damage to a shed and other parts of the property.

Hoses were still strewn across the lawn outside the home on Monday, as Murphy and her husband started the long process of repairing the farm.

In a 2024 interview on the website of cattle association Herefords Australia, Hobson said he had rediscovered a long-lost interest for the cattle breed when he took over operations of Aintree Farm Herefords in Terip Terip.

Premier Jacinta Allan on Monday offered her condolences.

“It’s a devastating impact, and it’s a devastating reminder of the tragedy that fire can bring to any community, to any household, to any doorstep, particularly on those difficult, catastrophic and extreme weather days,” she said from Natimuk.

“My thoughts and condolences are with that person’s family, their loved ones, the broader community too.”

With parts of Terip Terip still out of bounds so authorities can fully assess the extent of the damage, locals shared a dinner of pasta bolognaise on Monday.

“We’ll just catch up and debrief and try to get a hold of our grief,” Roach said.

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