Dalton rallies for orphans after tragedy

In 2015, Sarah and Jake Brown lost their mum, Vivien, to motor neurone disease.

At the time, their dad, David, had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

David was a sheep farmer who struggled in the recent drought gripping NSW. He had recently sold off a large portion of the family's farm.

On Monday, he died in a fatal house fire outside Dalton, east of Yass. The two family dogs, Louie and Ty, also died in the fire which destroyed the family home.

David's son, Jake, had his 20th birthday on Tuesday.

Now, the Dalton community is hoping to raise money for David's kids and Sarah's partner, Luke, after the fire left them homeless.

A family friend has started a GoFundMe, hoping to raise $200,000 for the children to show them "there is some good in the world".

"I probably just feel a bit numb ... it doesn't feel like it's real," Sarah said.

"It just feels like he's in hospital at the moment. It hasn't sunk in."

"Yeah, you just got to take as it comes really," Jake said.

"There's not much you can do about it."

The pair remember their mum and dad as two warm, generous and loving people.

David, born and bred in Dalton, had met Vivien when she worked at a trucker's diner outside Sydney.

"Dad was a farmer, mum was just this city girl," Sarah said.

"It took her a while to find her place here but she sort of created her place here."

The Brown's house was a haven for Dalton kids. Vivien ran a daycare centre out of it, but kids from the area would often stay when having blues with their parents.

"Mum was sort of that point for a lot of people," Sarah said.

"Everyone just went to mum to talk to."

Likewise David always had his door open for people, the two siblings said.

"He was a good fella," Jake said.

And funny. "He had no filter," Sarah said.

"That was the best part about him, hey. He wasn't always trying to be funny," Jake said.

He was tough. Jake said one time David ran over himself with a tractor, breaking both his legs.

"All he wanted was an esky with beer in it," Jake said.

Sarah had spent the last few years taking David to hospital appointments to treat his cancer. Those are some of her best memories of him.

"We always had such a good day together, it was always just a quality time with just me and him," she said.

The doctors had kept writing off David.

"He would end up in hospital over something so serious and the doctors would say to us, 'This is probably it'," Sarah said.

"The next day, dad would be sitting up and he's fine."

"He was this hard working, tough farmer but he was so soft as well."

He would always tell the kids he loved them. Always.

"I think we're lucky because we know how much they loved us," she said.

"Both of them were, in a way, our best friends. There was nothing off limits that we couldn't tell them."

Now, the two are still processing what this means. Their family has been in Dalton for seven generations.

The loving nature of the parents had seen doors open across Dalton for the pair, with the two staying in town with mates.

"When something like this happens, look how many people came together. You wouldn't get that in the bigger cities," Jake said.

The home was insured but it would need to be rebuilt, with the pair planning to build it "pretty much" as it was.

"[We'll] just keep on moving forward and see what we can do from here," Jake said.

Did you know the Goulburn Post is now offering breaking news alerts and a weekly email newsletter? Keep up-to-date with all the local news: sign up here.