Geoff Dinning
What the fires taught us about staying
A Rotarian stays present three years after bushfires, learning that recovery means showing up when the cameras leave.
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Geoff Dinning
A Rotarian stays present three years after bushfires, learning that recovery means showing up when the cameras leave.
Hear this story
Follow the show
In early January 2020, as fires tore through the Upper Murray region in Victoria, Geoff Dinning and other Rotarians realised they needed to act. What started as a simple idea to get books into burned-out schools grew into something far larger: a three-year commitment to help a community rebuild far beyond what the cameras captured.
Geoff's district bushfire committee tackled needs as they surfaced. They delivered dairy pellets to farmers, coordinated two or three hundred semi-trailers of hay (though they learned the hard way that hay needs tarping when rain comes overnight). They arranged temporary caravans for families with no homes. They worked closely with Gateway Health to reach isolated farmers in the hills where phone signals didn't reach, handing out over 40 compassionate grants of 2,500 dollars. Young ambulance drivers raised the alarm about suicides, leading to a memorial walk from Kaji War to Corryong. A toy library brought young families together. Three years on, Geoff's committee is wrapping up its formal work, but new cases still surface.
What strikes hardest is what Geoff observed in winter: people who wouldn't light their fires because seeing flames brought back memories they couldn't face. Some homes still aren't rebuilt, waiting for permits and builders. The frustration strains marriages. The work of recovery continues quietly, through other organisations now, but Geoff's insight remains clear: what makes people feel looked after is seeing the community show up, whether Rotary clubs, rugby clubs, or churches. It doesn't matter if you were playing football against each other before the fires. When the going gets tough, people pull together. That's what stayed.
“we could see the fires back up into the upper Murray absolutely devastating and it made us realize as rotarians that we needed to do something”
“some of them um over over winter wouldn't light their fire because um they knew that they see the flames and that just brought back memories”
“to see the the look on the people when you drive in with the Caravans uh they just you could see that it made a difference to them”
The hero, today
We formed the district bushfire committee in early January 2020 because we realised as Rotarians that we needed to do something, and we started by working with the community to find out what they actually needed. Gateway Health were up there daily sourcing out bushfire-affected farmers, and that close link meant we could reach people who were way back in the hills where the phones didn't work. Some of those people haven't lit their fires for three years because seeing the flames brings back memories they can't face, and that shows you the effect the fires had that goes way beyond the physical. We've handed out over 40 compassionate grants of two and a half thousand dollars, and we were still finding new cases three years down the track because some of those people are fairly way back. What made people realise they were being looked after was seeing the community turn up and help, whether it was Rotary clubs, rugby clubs, or churches coming together, and that didn't matter whether you were playing football against each other before.
Yes. Geoff Dinning is a real person who shared their own story in their own words. Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit that shares first-person stories of overcoming adversity, told with the person's consent.
Kintsugi Heroes, a registered Australian not-for-profit. Every story is shared with the hero's own consent and reviewed under Kintsugi Heroes' trauma-informed content standard before it goes public.
We formed the district bushfire committee in early January 2020 because we realised as Rotarians that we needed to do something, and we started by working with the community to find out what they actually needed.
Gateway Health were up there daily sourcing out bushfire-affected farmers, and that close link meant we could reach people who were way back in the hills where the phones didn't work.
Some of those people haven't lit their fires for three years because seeing the flames brings back memories they can't face, and that shows you the effect the fires had that goes way beyond the physical.
[Music] welcome to the consuki heroes podcast special Alpine bushfires Series where we share inspirational stories of everyday people from the Victorian Alpine region who went through the bushfires which occurred from late 2019 through to early 2020. these stories highlight the different challenges and events people went through and how they overcame them Please be aware that the story you're about to hear may have moments of deeply filled emotions and personal experiences if anything you hear has a triggering effect please reach out to someone who can help you if you love this conversation please like and share it with your friends so we can continue to share more inspiration and hope to as many people as possible now listen up for our next Heroes story [Music] this week on kasuki Heroes Alpine Edition we are featuring three stories of club members that were active in supporting the community during the black summer bushfires Jeff dinning Liz Harrison and Lance Simmons are pillars of their respective clubs and have shared with us how they help the Alpine region begin to repair after the tragic period of 2019 2020 first we'll hear from Jeff about ongoing projects with the Rotary Club and how they brought back their Community after the height of covert foreign [Music] thank you it's so good to be here it's uh another one of our special series episodes for the Alpine bushfires and my guest today is Jeff dinning Jeff welcome thank you thanks very much eveline uh I go back to when the woodfires uh were on uh on the um on the eve of the 2020 and uh I can remember being in wangaratta we could see the fires back up into the upper Murray absolutely devastating and it made us realize as rotarians that we needed to do something about that and what we did is we formed our district 9790 district Bushfire committee was formed early in January in 2020. and what we saw of the first uh project that need to get underway was to help the children in schools in primary and uh and and also in in the other schools which are the private schools uh to get them books and stuff because the farmers didn't have much up in that area so that was a big achievement and that was put up through the uh corion news agent so that gave the local businesses an opportunity to get a little bit of an income uh from there we decided that we needed to support the Dairy Farmers in the area and with that project we purchased uh Dairy pellets for the cows and and that that was a huge uh project to get underway and we we found that that uh gave gave the farmers a little bit of a support to see that there are people doing the work to support them and once once that was underway we worked with Victorian Farmers Federation to get some hay into the area and that was a uh huge probably two or three hundred semi-trailers into that area to to support the farmers and that that sort of project continued uh throughout and what we found though and what we learned as a project uh some of the big Square bars we we carted up there and uh delivered to the farmers and overnight uh some of the farmers had two or three inches of rain and that meant that the hay was no good but we learned that we needed to put tarp Islands over there over the top of the high so so that was something that we learned from that we also supported the farmers with shipping containers to put their small items of Machinery in there to keep them out of the weather uh another project was in beechworth myrtleford and mount Beauty area was air purifier through uh less than the smoke in the hospitals up in that area and this was a joint project with a lot of a lot of rotary clubs in the area and not so much in the area as well but we had support from rotary and Roti um clubs in the likes of Fremantle uh and and even even uh the hay that came from a long long way away as Ballarat supported us very well in in the hay uh the other projects that we did there were a lot of small towns up in in the coryong area and we we found that we needed to support them and we have what we call Compassionate grants and these uh two and a half thousand dollars but they go to various farmers and also even business people that have been burned out or had smoke uh inhalation to the um needed new curtains and that type of thing so probably I've I've a a period of time and we're still continuing with that uh it was probably over 40 uh compassionate grants of two and a half thousand dollars and we've worked very closely with uh Gateway Health in in Albury wodonga and wangaratta to assist because they were the people on the ground that were able to go and visit the farmers uh but some of them some of the smaller townships like Kaji war was completely burned out uh coryong had bars right around it while we're Talon monarial valleys and one of the other projects that was on ongoing was uh Rotary Club of Melbourne supplied Caravans and we were able to deliver them to people that didn't have a house so and to see the the look on the people when you drive in with the Caravans uh they just you could see that it made a difference to them and they knew that they had that Caravan until they got the house built so it was very very uh rewarding in this sort of thing and our our committee of um six people met uh on a regular every Wednesday night on Zoom it was on the committee made up of two from Melbourne one one from yay two from Aubrey widower and myself from wangaratta and one from yarrawonga so it was a joint effort from District 9790 so we really uh did sort of assist and on the other other hand there was uh Blazer which came into the area for at least six months and helped the farmers to build build their fences also benella uniting church had a a fencing team which came into the area so they were able to give the young Farmers a little bit of assistance and made that it worked out very well for the farmers and made them realize that with people that were looking after them uh the other projects that were happening was uh there was some mental health issues in the area and and couple of the young ambulance drivers came up with the uh suggestion that would have have a walk for uh to coordinate the the suicide victims that we were and and uh those hats were purchased with the assistance of the district 9790 committee and uh this walk went from Kaji War to corryong and into taiwang and uh that really uh supported the people because it was the younger people that were affected as well as the older people and what we didn't realize that we were concentrating on the the older generation and with the younger ones that really needed support also some of the other projects we started off with a assisting um it was was children starting up their own um um toy Library and uh that that brought the young families in together which which benefit not only the younger people but also the the grandparents did look after the kids a lot a lot of the a lot of the um uh people had to move out of Korean away and a couple of the rugby clubs I think it was Aubry Aubry West and Albany North put on a um uh project where my guide holidays to the farmers and business people in the area where where they could travel might be into just Aubry wadonga for a weekend but uh and the bigger bigger issues were was the uh holidays over into New Zealand because when New Zealand had their earthquakes over there uh our district has assisted in there and had them over here so that was a return bout and that was very very positive and a lot of a lot of good things came out of that and just closed probably the link between kiwis and Australia again which we we see quite often um yeah the other projects were sort of ongoing uh and and as we still can meet on a regular basis like every now we're making every two weeks we're getting to the end now I know it's probably three years but there's still a lot of needy people up in in Korean and all of the upper Marion even up into or the Alpine valleys in out on Mount Beauty and and uh be twist and bright yeah so I think overall uh we've probably quite satisfied that we were able to assist uh the area uh in in the in the support of what we've been able to do wow um that's a lot Jeff that's uh huge um as you know you you explained the first one with the books and then you went on to the next one and the next one I'm thinking okay that sounds like enough and then you've kept going and going and going and it sounds like the the people in your on your committee have done an amazing job to connect with different communities or different resource organizations and people to help provide all of these things um I've got a few questions first of all how did you come up with you know who needed the support first so what was the first kind of need that you identified would it be after the fires or during the fires uh definitely after the pause because the the forest didn't last very long they went through in probably less than 24 hours um and and what we what we realized that we really needed to work uh with the community and because the community were devastated it was a very hard uh thing to do but we did have um members of our Pub uh Mark crisp was one that used to live in corryong and living in wodonga and she could go up there on a weekly basis and talk to the people but probably the the closest link we had was with Gateway Health uh which which were up there daily to Source out the Bushfire effective uh farmers and even up until uh last week there was uh two new compassionate grants that came out and we were able to assist uh them so that that's three years down the track and we're continuing to find the because some of those people are fairly way back up and the phones don't work so it makes it very difficult to be able to work with those people in their communities absolutely where's the funding come from for a lot of these projects uh most of the most of the funding came from uh rotary clubs that permit to it and also uh through uh what they call the Reds account which is uh a road for international account with the national body that assisted us with uh the compassionate grants but most of those were sort of to coordinate the projects and uh blink rugby clubs together to be able to support each project and one of the projects as an example was uh wall but while we're Bush nursing Hospital uh they they were one of the centers that uh the the firemen were able to get help they needed a bigger cool room so that was a project that was put together and even companies from Melbourne came up to to put the cool room in and that sort of thing it was just amazing to see uh how the community support come from everyone and very very positive outcome yeah you just said it and I was thinking you know what it what an amazing opportunity to see uh you know the the community spirit and how people actually do care about each other and how they pull together and you don't see that as much in big cities and as you know I think you you you're in a in a country community and having Bush buyers go through it really forces people to connect even more and help even more doesn't it that's right and and uh when the going gets tough the tough gets going and and uh but really that way you see the support and and the just amazing to see what people will do and and it doesn't matter uh sometimes when you're playing football you're probably against the opposition but something like this everybody come together and and uh and Buckles in and and help but it's amazing the support from the rugby clubs in the area and even the Curry on right we Pub that put on uh functions for the firefighters and and that type of thing so it was a really uh joint effort and uh we're just slowly seeing the people in corryong and those local communities just starting to uh lift and that's a long time but some of them um over over winter wouldn't light their fire because um they knew that they see the flames and that just brought back memories so so people in in outlying areas that you know Carl that put an extra rug on but that didn't make any difference they wouldn't like the fire so it just shows you the effect yeah you know I never thought about that and and until you said that and it makes sense if someone's still got that trauma yeah and and I just don't want to relive it so they don't put the fire on wow um yeah as you said it's been three years right we're at the three year anniversary and yet the the work the initiatives that you're doing is still happening you know um support and clean up and rebuilding is an ongoing process isn't it doesn't it's not just a physical rebuild in in the first sort of period after the fires from what you've described it's it's been a journey and it goes beyond just the physical that's right and we'll still continue there there's um a lot of the houses haven't been built uh there's a process that's got to go through to get the permits and uh you know and then what happens then is that all Builders are very busy so it's uh awaiting game to be able to get the build so and you can imagine uh the frustration between husbands and wives you know that little little things that probably niggle each other and uh yeah it's just a matter of being able to continue to support these people uh in the future also I've been support for the business community and getting guest speakers up to talk about being and getting them together just around the barbecue so that um the the business Community can talk to each other because uh they they get back in their little hole and don't sort of get out of it and even even when we look back nowadays even with the covert uh was on the top of it as well so that made it extra hard to be able to to bring people out into the community so what we're seeing now just um down the fact three years we're just starting to see that sort of uh open up a little bit more and people coming out so it is it is distressing for a lot of people to go through this and and just can't imagine uh unless you've been through it it makes makes me proud to be a rotarian when you can assist people in various ways not not so much it's not not the monetary thing it's it's also about being able to make them feel good about themselves as well how is the how do you see the mental health of the community three years on like what are you seeing yes well there had to be something done because there was three years suicides in the area and that's where uh the girl from from the rainbow uh came together and put that on but uh we do we we do see a a positive outcome in in relation to now um the programs for years we sent them away on a youth project uh also boxing's been brought into the area to give them something to do and uh also Jim Jim gymnasium and that type of thing so I think it's a matter of keeping them positive and giving them something to do rather than just still work so yeah um is there much more to do like is there more ongoing work for you to do to support the community well I think there'll always be ongoing work but I think a role of the uh Bushfire recovery committee from uh road district 9790 is probably nearing the end and it's up to um some of the other areas and I know Bushfire recovery um Victoria has had input that I think has has been targeted probably more so at the smaller Community areas and also uh families that probably wouldn't see any of that money from the government whereas ours is not tagged and uh it hits the spot really all right Tyrion can be proud of what they've been able to achieve to assist this Committee in in helping the Alpine communities in the place of different mood absolutely next we'll hear from Liz Harrison child of a station Master former head teacher at kotong and an active member of the Lions Club in tangama he saw the impact that the bushfires had on the community first hand and reflects on his experience returning to his home of kajua after the fires expecting to find it in Ruins even though I wasn't directly there it had a massive impact on me I grew up in kajiwa which was badly affected by the bushfires and in fact we lived there from 1958 until 1960 when my dad was station Master at the railways there and in those days it wasn't a long time after the disastrous fires of 1952 and I can remember being at school and our head teacher Jim Nance discussing these fires with us and all the things that they had learned to make sure that such a disaster never occurred again and most of the things that he talked about were Common Sense things unfortunately over the years things changed the railway eventually closed down there's certain other issues arose as far as cleaning up roadsides collecting firewood and just making sure the place was well left speaking span and little chance suppliers starting and that at the time was the thinking of a lot of the locals that they would never let it happen again but unfortunately of course it did and I think that's the sad part about it those three years that we were at Kaji warm led me to regard Kaji War is my hometown I'm a cudgy war kid and when news came through that the whole town was threatened in this terrible disaster well it was like you were losing your own home and your own property it was a horrible time I might just backtrack a little bit too that in 1971 I returned to the upper Murray and taught for three years at the kiwetog primary school which is not very far away from Kaji war and I went back there and played football and cricket and knew still knew a lot of people so friendships were rekindled renewed and it was just as if it was yesterday that you left and it my heart still belongs to the upper Murray I just think they're a wonderful lot of people who didn't deserve to go through what they went through now on that particular horrible time we were getting ready to do a big job over at Nathalia with their Lions carnival on the New Year's Eve and the news that the fires are devastated a large part of the area really upset me and I rang people who are up there and the first words were well Kaji Wars gone it's been totally destroyed and you can imagine the um reaction that like it was just horrible to hear that and the lass who told me that firmly believed that they had lost their home in it as well as luck would have it later on when they went out to their place to view the ruins the fire had burnt right up to the house but left the house standing so they were very very lucky they also saved all their cattle it was just an amazing Stroke of Luck but I was very anxious to find out more and more about the effects of the fires very little concrete evidence was coming through the media it was very difficult to get hold of a a border paper in tangama where I live in fact it was Jolly well impossible and it was only through the bits and pieces through social media such as Facebook that we started to get a bit of a picture now there are a lot of things around that area that you would hate to see destroyed some of it of course was and it could never be replaced some of it survived and like for example the country War Hotel the old Permian rights store I really believe that our childhood home would have been burned to the ground but the railway houses all survived and I I guess in a way when I went back there it was quite comforting to see that at least that part of my childhood was still there even though across the road at the old rabbit works and those places they were destroyed and I can remember buying in them as a child so yeah there was a fair bit last uh driver it was impossible to go up to have a to find out for ourselves how um how widespread it was at that time I think it was a long weekend in January before we finally got to drive up there and the first impression was driving past the ruins of the old Waba hotel which was just a landmark for years and years and years and yeah to see it gone was quite sad and coming into Kaji War so many places destroyed but it was a bit comforting or very comforting when we got in there to find that most of the town was still standing and it must have taken a tremendous effort by the firefighters to save all those places and I guess they had to let vacant houses go and sheds go but places where people were living were largely left standing although I do know that there were people who were totally burned out and that's um and that that was very sad um and then became well or long before we got up there at the long weekend it became what can I do and it was not so much what I could do but we could do as our local Lions Club uh I was very passionate about some fundraising and we organized a huge raffle in tangama we had stuff donated from all over Victoria our members sold an enormous amount of raffle tickets we just the efforts of the lions in our club were just absolutely incredible in raising funds they just had this Focus that we were going to help these people out and I must admit I kept doing a bit of Kicking and nudging and just making sure that people stayed on track as to what we were after and um yeah and like I can remember hotel when the raffle we had 32 prizes I think we raised well over eight thousand dollars which isn't bad for a little Lions Club in a tiny little town and we had the whole town there for it and uh yeah it was just uh magnificent uh experience to be able to do that and to be able to make sure that the money was handed on now on the face of it eight thousand dollars doesn't go a long way but so many other Lions Clubs uh made huge donations and ran things as well after the fires of course there was the re-fancing and just getting people back on their feet times secure now I do know a group called blazeaid went up there and repaired fences repaired Gates uh the Sikh Community I don't know where they came from but on the long weekend when we went up there to visit and to talk to some of my friends they were out fencing and I just couldn't believe what they were doing I did meet one of them in Melbourne last year one or two of them and they really are incredible people and they pass under the radar a bit as far as people who just do so much for other people and yeah and and just then to catch up with the lions from Wildwood's Angelic and gee some of them were really uh they they were hurt pretty bad and some of them very had very narrow Escape so I might add two and they're when we drove up along the the Murray Valley Highway along the river which uh it was you just thought it must have been horrific and it's just yeah it looked it was an experience saying all this stuff the ruins of homes and substantial homes historic homes and you think well how much has just been lost our history Our Heritage and like thankfully to the CFA so much was left standing that that's that's the amazing part about it then of course we were hit by covert then the floods and ah look how much can these small tiny communities take they're just incredible people they're so tough up there in the upper Murray they are tough people and and they're wonderful people but it makes you wonder just how much they can put up by environmentally it as a very the office that Murray River up there for years and brought some wonderful trout and cod and Redfin and to see the damaged under the environment uh from the fires and the resultant death of so many fish and birds and animals just from the putrid water that the Murray became and he just started to wonder will it ever clean up when you were describing in your story how you drove up the Murray Valley Highway and you said it was just unbelievable what you saw and now when you drive up the Murray Valley Highway you know it looks totally different you know there's this regeneration and in some parts like in Korean you said it's hard to believe there was even a fire that ripped through there and yet under the surface there's still so much Devastation that has yet to be healed or cleaned or he'll you know fixed and as you said at the start of your story of sharing it's still ongoing today how long does it take in your eyes and your experience Les oh look I've been around a while with uh schools uh I was a school principal for oh well I got 37 years um to some people it never heals the mental hurt uh that never really goes away when you've been through something like that and I look I still let's talk to people whose homes are burnt down years and years ago and then and they'll always say the thing I miss most is and it's just the most to us the most inconsequential thing like a doll or something like that that they've lost and it must have been so precious in photographs I would hate to live without my photographs because they're just reminders of good times I mean yeah okay you can live with if your car crashes will catch us fire you can live with that and get another one but it's some memories that um yeah you can never replace and I'm just looking around the room that I'm in at the moment here at home and it's just full of memorabilia and photographs of happy times in our lives and I'd hate to see it go the horror of it all I don't think it ever really goes away our last guest this week is Lance Simmons becoming president of the murderful Bowling Club in May 2019 she couldn't have known what the fires the following summer would bring Gathering the community around him his business Acumen has extended the reach of the club to provide a vital service of social cohesion and interaction for the residents of the Alpine region I guess my story starts um in as much as in May 2019 I became president of the myrtleford bolster and we're a small town in Northeast Victoria of course in the Alpine Shire and uh little did I know at that point in time the bushfires were break out towards the end of the year and hot on its Hills was covered came along to compound all the issues associated with running a very small club and also associated with the town and greater area of the Alpine Shire um fortunately my background um was in the wine industry for over 40 years in a Sales Management role so the corporate world had taught me well in as much as the disciplines about uh running a club and running um looking after people in that regard so I was very cognizant from day one of the need to um uh help with the resilience and of the township on a broader scale than just the selfishly looking after the Bowls Club I surrounded myself with people with the appropriate skills um and uh the uh the benefits of that to this they have been Sensational when I took over the Bowls Club they'd run at a loss previously um all four years Financial years since that day have we've made a profit and we've put over 170 000 dollars back into the club and even though it's a not-for-profit community club so that's the right thing to do and all those benefits therefore can be shared by not only the club members but the wider community at large and it's certainly paid dividends we're very highly respected Club not only in the myrtleford township but the Alpine Shire these days and uh we're flourished in the difficult four years that we've had to go through we've increased membership um we've just partnered and raised a lot of money for The Royal Children's Hospital in the last few weeks even but um we've enhanced our Barefoot bowls program so we've been we've really recognized the need for social interaction and supporting the people of the township through difficult times and um they've they've come back to us obviously and our profile in the town has been enhanced and everybody knows the Bowling Club is a good place to be at these days oh that sounds wonderful um yeah and well done for being able to turn it around since you've uh since you've joined in 2019 that's really great to hear so tell me what what was going on uh for you you it obviously been at the club for what five months or so before the bushfires broke out and what was the impact on you and also I guess the club the community and take me through then sort of how things played out at that point when um uh I was uh shoulder tapped instead of taking on the president secrets of the previous prison and his wife were moving to Queensland having been a member of the club for uh six or seven years before that the club has been very harmonious and we've been able to achieve a great deal of things in conjunction not only with the members total support but um on a broader scale and it was only a few months later the fires broke out so that wasn't in the frame when I took on took over the Helm of the club but my experience told me that you have to uh um even though it's a relatively small Club not profit Community Club you still run it as you've got your own business and that meant uh changing a lot of things within the club my position and my attitude about all that the difficult times for the smoke and the fires and the loss of Tourism which flowed from the fires and things of that nature is that this is an ongoing program now that so we we must continue to build our profile and build um build on our reputation in the town and we'll get the benefits long term um but as a club so much so uh quite an interesting story which um has grown into something bigger than Ben Hur was than um October 2021 I presented to the board of directors my dream and my dream was to put a roof over one of the greens and change the surface the synthetic well the response around the table was um well good luck with that and that lots of smiles and so I promised the the board will look I'm a bit of a dog with a bang when I have a project in mind so I promise I won't spend any money until I get your approval well we're now at the stage where the whole town knows about this project and this project has grown into something very big so in June until two months time we're very hopeful that the Alpine Shire canceled budget uh will be revealed for 23.24 and we will have some Sensational news associated with that um in as much as it uh it will lead to the to the northeast of Victoria's first absolute world-class sporting facility and in a town of myrtleford with a population only five about five thousand people but the benefits will certainly be tourism uh environmental benefits health benefits and economic benefits so and I'm saying once again not just selfishly for the club but for the the broader area of the Northeast and certainly myrtleford so it's a really exciting project and uh I'll be uh hopefully staying in the chair unless they want to kick me out until such time as we see this uh project to fruition early yeah tell me about how did the fires affect the community my perspective is probably a little um different to some of the people in the town in as much as I actually live in Brighton which is 30 kilometers down the road um even though I'm president of America boss that bride has its own bowl of stuff however um I just uh noticed that there was a lot of businesses really wanted to cut back and uh uh run a very tight ship to try and survive because tourism was blocked and in some cases they sort of advised tourists to leave at the area in some of the critical periods of the fires and uh um so there were a lot of shall I say fragile people um that have put their life uh life savings and everything into their business and we're very uh yeah fragile when it came to mentally how they were going to get through this and hoping that it wasn't prolonged and then to get slammed with the covert thing on top of it um that sort of added another dimension and and to this day it's been very much going to visit these people one-on-one or inviting them to our club uh and uh looking looking after we don't do meals or have poker machines but but to look after them and make them feel very special the word spread quickly that the environment the Bowling Club was was very welcoming and it took a lot of pressure off a lot of people enabled them to have that social interaction um where other you know otherwise they would just stay home and were trying to save a dollar so we feel really proud of the way that um you know we we have on an ongoing basis year on year have done a little bit more and more and more um and realizing that um it's it's more about being very much part of a community rather than just a club in the town yeah it's beautiful how did you do anything uh I guess in response to the fires and how that impacted the community in the club we had to sort of um contact them to make sure they stayed in the club initially or not so much not that they didn't want to be part of the club but they withdrew from society to some extent um very concerned about not only their own welfare but you know uh perhaps what else was going on on a larger scale and uh yeah we we had to make it um shared responsibility from the executive and the board of directors that contact all players on a regular basis to make sure their mental health as well as their physical health um and uh was was okay and to get them to get out uh to build on build on the fact that the social interaction could only be good for them gave them also the physical opportunity to have their game of bowls that they love and um and that sort of spreading on to the wider Community has meant that we've grown the numbers for Barefoot bowls they don't have to become a member to be a Barefoot bowler but the numbers have grown greatly and we've gathered quite a few new members through that those programs you know which has been great and um you know wherever you go now um yeah I feel welcome everywhere in myrtleford uh throughout the whole Township um part of what we also tried to achieve was getting articles of publicity so in the local paper the Old Pine uh Observer um we would try to have an article every week or whether it be just about scores for pennant or about certain players or tournaments or things of that nature and that once again with an invitation always come and have a game of bulk you know and just create that atmosphere I could only imagine that during those difficult months and then the ongoing covert but certainly when the the fires started but having those programs open and and growing those and like you said reaching out to people and making sure that they were invited and kept connecting with the others was just a lifesaver for them I mean this is what people need they need the connections they need to be part of that the group and be and maybe made feel part of something well yeah it's very hard to measure Evelyn very hard to measure that I also understood that to get the best out of the people that are in you're involved with you have to work together as a team um and uh and uh if they're enjoying themselves they'll want to spend more time in a common club and become more involved and so that's been very much my leadership my part of my leadership philosophy to make sure everything is inclusive and make make people feel really really welcome and they certainly pay dividends in our in our case after bowling Club how did you see the community get through the fire period And then after that you know once at the rebuild phase should we call it some some didn't get through in terms of probably to this day still affects their mental health and uh um and they retracted perhaps socially as well the demographic in the town is um probably a little older than that in bright bright has saved but recent years has uh attracted more people looking that couldn't afford to see change that have come to an area the Northeast and the greater Alpine region where there are so many options and things to do that uh the 30 and 40 year olds were two kids have moved here and they can sit in the backyard in the Sun and conduct their business on a laptop things of that nature but there's great opportunities as well and the lifestyle is so Diversified and so great it's been good probably a more stable but older demographic in myrtleford that was relying heavily prior to the last six or seven years on Tobacco which they closed the industry down so that really left um the timber Mill as the key employer as well uh and uh but since then the town is search for other other Industries to really build on um and it's it's a very slow it's been a very slow build you know so uh uh I think one of the gravy uh the saving Graces um is that the people on the land have seen quite Dynamic values in terms of beef and sheep and um and uh farming so that that that has been a positive that has brought back people in a very positive frame of mind but some are still to this day I'm sure are struggling you know so you know going forward I guess we we hope for some consecutive years of uh Fire free uh period and people can really build their large 100 I guess it's where I'm what I'm saying you know it's a community kind of put in place anything new after these fires on a physical level or or a humanitarian humanitary kind of person personal level to potentially cope if if the fires come if more fires come in the future um look uh I spoke to the vice president of a footy Club a couple of years ago uh two years ago I think and because I had this thing in mind that um I wanted to see every single Club in myrtleford come together um and uh even if we only got stickers and a little uh stand with all the brochures in it for regarding Beyond blue and mental health and issues that might have made life difficult for a lot of people irrespective of their age um I was a step behind because the uh the football club had started a move for themselves for their Club but I still want to see going forward that all clubs come together so that we could have at the front door or wherever it may be uh a welcome message for anybody that just wants to come in and talk uh if they've still got issues whether mental health because I unfortunately see that as one of the uh a growing concern australia-wide for various reasons and it doesn't have to be catastrophic floods or or fires but so that when you have a position of responsibility like mine and the board of directors we have an obligation to support programs of that nature as well Lance thank you so much for sharing I love what you're doing I love your positivity uh your connectedness the way you're developing these programs and growing the spirit of the club and connecting with other clubs and making it so accessible to people and being a solid place in the community for people to to go and enjoy and it's so important and I just want to thank you for sharing and everything that you're doing well I appreciate your time and having the opportunity to have a chat to you Evelyn so uh yeah uh thanks for uh to you and Ian for developing this program and I hope down the track it provides some benefit for others for sharing absolutely I know it will thank you Lance really appreciate it bye-bye we hope you've enjoyed this episode of consugu Heroes with the Alpine bushfires special series please like and share the show to your friends so we can get this out to even more people if you have a story you'd like to share with us please reach out using the contact details below and join us for our next hero story until then keep being you and remember that we are all heroes in our own unique way [Music] only when is broken only when it's broken when it hits you in the middle of the night and the truth Burns so bright only when it's broken [Music] foreign [Music] foreign
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We've handed out over 40 compassionate grants of two and a half thousand dollars, and we were still finding new cases three years down the track because some of those people are fairly way back.
This conversation includes fires through the upper murray, books for schools, income for local shops, dairy pellets and learning to tarp the hay, two or three hundred semi-trailers of hay, caravans arriving at burned-out properties and mental health and the walk from kaji war to corryong.
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