NSW Country Women's Association president Stephanie Stanhope rose above two bushfires

Appointed to steer the organisation to its centenary in 2022, Ms Stanhope's resilience was put to the test when her home at Numbugga in the Bega Valley of the NSW south coast was wiped out in last year's Black Summer bushfires.

It was the second fire to sweep through her property in the space of 18 months.

A neighbour saved her house in 2018, but a shed and van which contained some of her daughter's belongings couldn't be salvaged.

But she wasn't so lucky in 2020.

Her house was the only one in the direct area to be affected, but was among more than 400 lost across the Bega Valley.

"The ironic thing was I actually had a shed kit in the grass waiting to put up for the one I lost and it went as well," she said.

"I've now built my house where the shed would have been."

Ms Stanhope experienced a great deal of isolation, compounded by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as nearby communities rallied around Cobargo and Bemboka, but her house was the only one lost in Numbugga.

"There is all this funding for community resilience and recovery, but when you're only one, you're not a community," she said.

"They are losing a lot of people in the recovery process because they don't fit the criteria they think everyone should fit.

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"Bemboka had their little recovery group, but a guy in the Baptist Church said 'what about Steph?' because I'm not in that community, but they knew me because I used to dairy farm.

"That was the only way I got the connections to another community and the support that was offered then came to me.

"There must be a heap of people who are isolated and not part of communities so they're not getting the support that is out there."

But Ms Stanhope was reassured by the work of the CWA and other non-government groups.

"The support from non-government sources has been amazing because I guess they look at the people," she said.

"It's the same in any disaster. The CWA gets out there and gets on with it.

"You don't look for the accolades for doing the stuff, it's just something you do." Ms Stanhope addressed members at the CWA Murray group annual general meeting on Thursday.

"We wanted it to be a day about friendship and music," president Lynette Buck said.

"We had to postpone the initial day, but Stephanie came up with the idea that we could still have it in December and she travelled here, which was great."

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