Australia's bushfire disaster - with relief agencies even begging donors to stop delivering food, clothing and household goods.
But for volunteers much closer to those affected, the contributions have been invaluable.
On one side of the iconic Bells Line of Road at Bilpin - there are hectares of burned orchard, so charred it's impossible to tell what kind of plants were once so carefully tended.
On the other side, there are signs of life, a month after the Gospers Mountain bushfire tore through parts of the NSW's Blue Mountains.
Mr Lonergan is also the local RFS fire chief. Source: SBS News
Some, like Bilpin fruit and flower grower Sean Lonergan, face a long road to recovery
"This is a block of Fuji apples. Totally destroyed. Nothing will live from these," he told SBS News.
His orchard - made up of apples, cherries and magnolias - is entirely lost.
It could be six years before some trees bear fruit again - others are just too far gone.
On 21 December, hours the 61-year-old had been wearing another hat - Bilpin's Rural Fire Service chief - directing crews from the shed in the town centre.
He calls that leveraging his 42 years of experience as a volunteer, not being a hero.
"The community's quite strong, and fires are a worry for this community, and it was part of being on a farm, and volunteering to protect your own self-interest, in the end," he said.
"We learn a little bit each time. But there's no alternative. There's not a full-time fire brigade here or anything.
"It's great, but it's not something we want any sort of recognition for, I don't think. We just get on with it."
In the days after the fire swept through, Mr Lonergan received food parcels, while a church-based community group helped with his fallen power poles.
Straight across the road, Madison's Mountain Retreat got off comparatively lightly.
At the farm stay, there was damage to gardens and some outdoor facilities.
But with 73 alpacas on site, forward planning was essential.
With 73 alpacas on site, forward planning was essential as bushfires moved in. Source: SBS News
"A week before, the boy alpacas were sent to the tennis court, the girls and babies to the dam area", Madison's manager Anne Fuller said.
In the fire's aftermath, Madison's owners issued an SOS on Facebook, leading to donations of hundreds of Christmas trees, which the alpacas guzzled like chocolate.
In the weeks since, there have been council donations such as of saplings - while individuals have donated plants, hay bales - and their time.
"There's a lady who lives locally and she didn't know how to fix her water pumps," Ms Fuller said.
"A call went out on Facebook for help. We had two volunteers go up and help her, and then they told her about the plight of the Madison's so she offered her services to come and help plant gardens with us the next day".
Helped by working bees, Madison's hopes its main farm-stay activities can resume soon - one of many Bilpin businesses determined to rebuild.
But psychologically, volunteering is a double-edged sword, according to psychiatrist Robert Llewellyn-Jones.
"I think that one thing that promotes mental health resilience is communities pulling together, and feeling that they can make a difference," he said.
"On the other hand, the fact that people have been through this may make them wonder, well if this is our new normal - if the drier, hotter weather with prolonged bushfires with very severe bushfires is now our new normal - and people don't feel that there are enough resources to adapt to that new normal.
"Then their anxiety about the next season or the season after that is likely to be increased."
