Veterans Helping Veterans – how the RSL helped Jeff rise from the ashes
At 2:00am on Thursday 8 January 2026, Jeff Swain woke to the sound of his alarm clock.
It was still pitch black but since the previous afternoon he had been growing increasingly concerned about a line of fires to the north of his six-acre property outside of Seymour.
He stepped out into his yard, followed closely by his dog Geordie, and was relieved to see the fires were still some way off. He had spotted the fires while on duty with the CFA and had told his neighbours that the fire would become uncontrollable on Friday, when catastrophic conditions were forecast. It would simply be too dangerous to stay.
Satisfied the fire wouldn’t arrive that night he returned to bed and slept through to the morning. With the sunrise, he could see the fire was continuing to build so he packed anything that could not be replaced into his car, including Geordie, and headed for Seymour.
Unfortunately, there were some things that he could not take with him. Among them were his twenty sheep, including a baby lamb that he had bottle-fed since birth. There was nothing he could do to save them and had to trust to luck that they would be safe.
Jeff is an old hand at emergency management.
As well as being a member of the CFA he enlisted in the Army in 1969, serving with 6RAR in Vietnam. He spent around 40 years working with the defence forces as a full-time soldier and later as a defence public servant. He served around Australia and in Canada, the Philippines, New Guinea and Singapore.
He had moved to his house in 2005 during his last posting at Puckapunyal. He joined the Yea/Kinglake RSL in 2011, where he helped get the Sub-Branch’s finances back on track before going on to serve as the President.
Safe in Seymour, Jeff and Geordie checked in at the fire station where Jeff volunteers in brigade rehab. It was his job to check over firefighters returning from the fire front, to assess them for heat stroke and cool them down, and make sure it was safe for them to go back out to the fires.
While at the station he kept his eyes on the fires but by 3:00pm was almost certain his house was lost.
Meanwhile RSL Victoria, both at ANZAC House and at Sub-Branch level, was gearing up to provide to support to veterans impacted by the fires.
RSL Victoria Manager of Wellbeing Navigation and Support, Stuart McGown, had put a call out among Wellbeing Co-ordinators across the state to volunteer to be available to provide support to any veterans impacted by the fires.
Veronica Raymond, from Frankston RSL Sub-Branch answered the call. She is the Wellbeing Co-ordinator at Frankston RSL Sub-Branch but assists veterans and their families across Victoria.
As temperatures soared into the forties and fires broke out across the state, she was on standby to assist any veterans who needed help.
Through the sweltering heat of Friday, the fire at Longwood raced across the North central areas of Victoria, fanned by a strong wind change that pushed the fires to the northeast.
Staying at the emergency relief centre in Seymour, Jeff was contacted by Clint Brewster, Chief Operating Officer of RSL Victoria, on Saturday morning. He wanted to know if the veterans in the area were okay and if the Kinglake/Yea RSL Sub-Branch building was still intact.
“I texted Clint and let him know that the Sub-Branch building was okay,” Jeff said. “But I had lost everything.”
Jeff was not asking for help. He had always had an emergency plan in place and had started to implement that plan.
Clint Brewster contacted Veronica about Jeff’s situation and asked her to provide support. She tried calling Jeff but could not get through. He had turned his phone off as he began trying to work out where he would live while his house and life were rebuilt out of the ashes.
Eventually Veronica was able to reach the Wellbeing Co-ordinator at Seymour RSL Sub-Branch, Jenny Dangerfield. Veronica asked her to find Jeff at the relief centre and let him know she was trying to reach him.
“When I first spoke to him,” Veronica said. “He was very reluctant to take any help. He thought there would be people who needed it more. I told him it was not feasible for him to stay in an emergency relief centre with his dog, he needed to let us help him.”
While Jeff finally relented, getting him and Geordie the help they needed wasn’t easy. Veronica and other members of the RSL, including RSL Victoria Senior Vice President, Des Callaghan, called around twenty different accommodation providers but could not get anyone to accept both Jeff and his dog.
Veronica reached out to the President of Seymour RSL Sub-Branch, Matt McLaughlin, to see if he knew of anyone in the Seymour area that would have a place for Jeff.
Matt immediately called the owner of the Highlands Caravan Park, Craig Williams. While he was fully booked, Craig did not hesitate to take Jeff in.
Veronica locked in the emergency accommodation at Highlands Caravan Park, with the RSL picking up the tab until 2 February. Veronica then set about finding long term accommodation for Jeff and Geordie until the insurers came to the party and his house was rebuilt.
It wasn’t until Sunday 11 January that Jeff Swain was able to return to his property to assess the damage that had been done to his house and livestock.
Jeff’s worst fears were confirmed.
His house and all his outbuildings were in ruins. Eight of his sheep had been burnt to death with another eleven so badly injured that his neighbour had already done the humane thing and euthanised them for Jeff.
But as he stood amongst the burnt remains of his home, he heard the sound of a baby lamb bleating. To his amazement the lamb was alive. It had found a hole in a fence and managed to get out on to the road where it had been safe from the fire.
While Sooty the lamb was saved and in a new a home in a petting zoo, Veronica was still searching for long term accommodation for Jeff and Geordie.
She reached out to Vasey RSL Care to see if they had anything that might be suitable for Jeff. Georgina, from Vasey RSL Care, said a one-bedroom unit with a fully fenced backyard had just come up in Bundoora and offered it to Jeff.
He accepted it gratefully.
“The assistance I received made all the difference to me,” Jeff said. “I want veterans to know that the RSL is there for them when they lose everything. It is veterans helping other veterans get back on their feet.”
Because Jeff lost almost everything to the fire, the RSL is helping out with the cost of new furniture as he reestablishes himself and gets his insurance claim finalised.
Jeff was far from the only person receiving support from Veronica or hundreds of others of volunteers at RSL Sub-Branches around the state.
“At the same time, I was helping Jeff, there was a young veteran with his wife and five small children who had lost everything, they were living in a caravan and needed help just to pay for a site at a caravan park.”
Veronica provided them with money for rent and vouchers for food and groceries. She also directed them towards accommodation providers and began to help them get out of their caravan and into more sustainable and secure long-term accommodation.
As Jeff prepares to move into his unit in Bundoora, he recognises that despite his initial reluctance to accept any help from the RSL, the best thing to do in his circumstances was to take any offer of assistance.
“For me it was a strange situation to be in,” Jeff said. “I had spent so many years with the RSL raising money and making sure that other people got taken care of, it had never really occurred to me that I would be on the receiving end of support like this.”
If you are a veteran with skills and experience to contribute, please consider getting in touch with RSL Victoria on 03 9655 5555 to find out how you can help. If you would like to assist Seymour RSL, you can reach them at se*****************@*****ok.com
