A town councillor from Westbury moved by the plight of those involved in the deadly Australian bush fires has personally handed over donations he collected to those affected.

More than 200 people died in the fires, which ripped through the Australian state of Victoria last month, destroying in the region of 1,800 homes and leaving 7,500 people homeless.

Westbury town councillor and hairdresser Mike Cuthbert-Murray, who has friends and family in Queensland - north of Victoria - was so shocked by the severity of the devastation he decided to start a collection fund for the victims at his Banana Blues hair salon in High Street.

He flew out to Australia on March 6, and presented a cheque of more than $800 to Fraser Coast City mayor, Mick Kruger, on March 16 at the regional council offices in Torquay, Queensland.

On receiving the cheque Mr Kruger thanked the residents of Westbury for their donations.

He said: “I thank you for your thoughts and donation to the victorian bush fire appeal.

“The size of the fires, their ferocity and the destruction they left behind was shocking. It would be easy to be overwhelmed by the devastation but the despair we felt was eased by the amazing stories of survival.

“The response from Australians, and now the residents of Westbury, has been inspirational.

“Rather than wait for someone to do something people around the world have jumped in and organised fundraisers and collected items to help the victims of the fires rebuild.

“While the physical scars will take time to heal , the communities have shown they are not beaten and are rebuilding.”

The Fraser Coast Regional Council themselves contributed $6,000 towards the appeal and all the donations will be forwarded to the Bush Fire Appeal.

Cllr Cuthbert-Murray, who arrived back in England on Monday, said: “A lot of my friends and family were quite lucky and missed the fires but I saw the damage that had been done.

“It’s hard to describe the devastation - buildings are no longer there and are now just rubble on the ground.

Explaining why he collected the donations, he added: “It was all over the TV and I thought it would be a nice gesture. The money did not stop flying in and in this current climate it was a great amount to collect.”

Australian police suspect at least two of the bush fires were started deliberately, and have charged one man with arson in the Gippsland region - a fire which killed more than 20 people.