Julie Ahrens · 56 min
When the 2022 River Murray floods threatened to fracture Berri's community, a retired teacher-turned-grassroots organiser transformed a borrowed shopfront and a borrowed red couch into a pop-up wellbeing centre that held her town together, one cup of tea at a time.
Hear this story
When the 2022 River Murray floods threatened Berri, the town faced more than rising water. A Defence Cell Wall went up along the riverfront, schools closed, the river shut down for boating, and a blanket of uncertainty settled over the community. While emergency managers focused on infrastructure, something else was missing: someone to talk to. Someone to ask if people were okay.
Julie Ahrens, a retired teacher who had chosen the Riverland decades earlier and watched it shape her family, recognised the gap. A few days before Christmas, she received an unexpected phone call. Wellbeing SA had some funding and wanted to know if she could do anything with it. Julie said yes.
She borrowed a shopfront in the main street, borrowed a red couch, and opened the Public Living Room. Four days a week, 10 to 4, she and her volunteers made tea, put out Play-Doh, invited artists and musicians, and held space. People came because they needed connection, not crisis services. A woman burst into tears over a cup of tea, just from being heard. Businesses donated sausages. Young artists got work. The community showed up because they wanted to help but didn't know how.
What Julie built wasn't a traditional disaster response. It was a place where people could laugh, make art, feel safe, and remember they weren't alone. Eighteen months later, some families still had no secure housing. But the town had learned something else: ordinary people could act without permission. They could show up, listen, and hold each other through the thing that was breaking them.
“We're talking about being at one end of the spectrum is someone trying to access a mental health bed. We're at the other end of the spectrum — what are we doing as community to maybe stop people going that way?”
“I made her a cup of tea and she burst into tears — she was just exhausted with trying to manage this, and it just made you realise that people just want to connect in new and different ways.”
“We called it the public living room. We got someone got a trailer and brought in a red couch and we got the urn on. We put a pop-up sign out the front — pop-up wellbeing centre. Come on in.”
The hero, today
Julie learned that when people's heads are spinning with uncertainty, they don't necessarily need more crisis services; they need someone to talk to, a cup of tea, and a space where they feel safe. Julie discovered that by making wellbeing about fun, connection, and positive experiences rather than fixing problems, people are less likely to spiral into depression and isolation. Julie found that people wanted to help their community but didn't know how; creating a resourced space gave them permission and practical ways to contribute. Julie believes that rural communities need intentional capability building for navigating complex, cascading challenges like drought, COVID, flood, and economic stress, not just optimism. Julie sees younger people attracted to flexible, place-based community work that respects their time and lets them show up as they are, not to formal organizations with rigid structures.
Yes. Julie Ahrens 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.
Julie learned that when people's heads are spinning with uncertainty, they don't necessarily need more crisis services; they need someone to talk to, a cup of tea, and a space where they feel safe.
Julie discovered that by making wellbeing about fun, connection, and positive experiences rather than fixing problems, people are less likely to spiral into depression and isolation.
Julie found that people wanted to help their community but didn't know how; creating a resourced space gave them permission and practical ways to contribute.
Julie believes that rural communities need intentional capability building for navigating complex, cascading challenges like drought, COVID, flood, and economic stress, not just optimism.
John Milham (Host) · 00:00
Kintsugi Heroes brings you the following River Murray flood recovery story, jointly funded by the Commonwealth and South Australian governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. To find out more about this podcast, head to kintsugiheroes.com.au. The 2022 River Murray floods in South Australia were caused by record water inflows from the Murray-Darling Basin due to heavy upstream rainfall. The slowly rising floodwaters inundated homes, businesses, and farmland, causing widespread displacement, infrastructure damage, and agricultural losses. The disaster significantly impacted local economies, communities, and led to the region's long-term recovery. In this special limited series of Kintsugi Heroes, John Milham sits down with members of the Riverlands community and gives them space to share their experiences of their personal diversity and community resilience. It's only through connection and empathy that there can be a path to recovery. In this episode of River Murray Recovery Stories, John Milham is joined by Julie Ahrens. Today we explore Julie's inspiring journey as a dedicated teacher and storyteller from Australia's Riverland District. Julie began her career as a bonded student teacher, moving to rural areas driven by job opportunities and personal adventure. Aiming to reconnect fragmented communities, her focus broadened after the devastating 2022 floods. As water inundated the area, Julie spearheaded efforts to rebuild community ties, fostering resilience through creative community engagement. Please enjoy Julie's story.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 01:54
So ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another Kintsugi Heroes Podcast. Uh, and today we're talking, uh, Beyond the Deluge, the Riverland Flood Project. Uh, and we're talking with Julie, uh, Aarons. Aarons, sorry, Julie. Um, and, uh, Julie is a resident of Berry, which is on the river, uh, in the Riverland, uh, District. Uh, and Berry, uh, Julie has a flood story, but more than that, Julie has a rural story. Which I love, and we can talk to Julie as a teacher and a storyteller. So let's hope that we get a chance to get more of a picture of that period of time in 2022 when the water came down the river and made everyone's lives challenging for a little while. So welcome to Kintsugi Heroes: Beyond the Deluge, Julie.
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This conversation includes a teacher who chose the river, the river gets in your blood, noticing the cracks in community, the wall changes everything, the operational gap and a phone call a few days before christmas.
John Milham (Host) · 02:50
Thanks, John.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 02:51
It's fabulous to have someone on the ground and someone particularly connected to the place. And of course, we were just chatting about the idea you came in, in a very— what was kind of once upon a time a common Australian story, but it probably doesn't happen so much. Out of Teachers College, you spent time being allocated to country postings, which was kind of the payback process, as you said, a bonded student teacher. And then you found your way taking a posting to Berry after another one in the wheat country. What was exciting about the idea about going to Berry?
John Milham (Host) · 03:36
I think it was the opportunities of the job. I mean, at the time I was still quite an early career teacher. I've been teaching for a little while in Balaclava. I just saw a job advertised and I was pretty bold really when I think about it for my age. It was actually working in the district team. It was around training and development and teachers and school libraries, which were really booming in the '80s and that whole notion of starting to talk about information literacy and changes in the way information was flowing. We were the first—
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 04:08
Technology changing the game.
John Milham (Host) · 04:10
Correct. We were the first place in town that had a dial-up satellite looking at this thing called the internet. In the mid-'80s. And it was sort of an exciting time. And I saw that job opportunity. Plus, I'd been on holidays a few times up in the Riverland. And I remember, you know, I just had beautiful memories of this beautiful place where you could camp by the river. And I'd grown up sort of doing outdoorsy stuff with my family. And I was a Girl Guide. And, you know, I liked the idea of getting out and camping. And although I'd grown up in the city, I'd really enjoyed my time over in Balaclava, but then I saw this opportunity and I thought, you know, that might be a really interesting place to go for a while. And so I applied for it and I ended up landing in Berry, living right near the river.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 04:56
Do you think rural Australians are born that way or are they grown?
John Milham (Host) · 05:03
I would have to say from my experience, they can be grown. There is a lot of people that are born that way, but I've got lots of friends who've had similar experiences to me that have come here for work or different circumstances. We talk about the river gets in our blood. Once you get that first summer and you're out on wakeboards and you go out on a tinny early and put out the shrimp pots and then the special kind of community events that you have in a country town, after a while, the lifestyle is hard to beat. We couldn't imagine a better place to raise our children. Our kids talk about that whole memory of out on Papa's canoe and the freedom that they had to wander about. They walked to school, they played in the fig trees across the road. They have a bit of a funny story where they say, "You know you're a Riverlander when you're used to eating orange food." Because when you're growing up, you're either eating apricots, oranges, or pumpkins because all of those are pretty well grown in your neighborhood. Whenever they come home, it's pumpkin soup, pumpkin scones, and chopped up oranges and they just love it.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 06:12
Well, yeah, it sounds beautiful. Um, I, I find it interesting that, um, Australia, Australia as a society, like all our population, is very close to water and even, and very powerful. Do you think that's something that, uh, we inherit, or, you know, is it just, uh, you know, so, you know, is it a power in us, or is it the land impacting on us? What do you think?
John Milham (Host) · 06:41
Yeah, maybe a bit of both. I think, you know, we do live in a dry place, so we probably are drawn to the water. We're also pretty active and outdoorsy kind of as people. So I think the idea that water provides all those great opportunities. I mean, I grew up on the beach. I actually grew up at Brighton Beach in Adelaide and ended up at the river. And I have to be near water. And when I'm home in Adelaide, I need to go and have a walk by the beach. And I love the beach. And, you know, it took me a little while to feel comfortable like swimming in the river because I've never done that and you sink. Like, it's not like the sea where you float. And I can remember first thing, oh, I'd never go in there, you know, it looks dirty and you don't float. And, you know, I'd grown up in sort of pristine, nice clear water at the beach. But now, you know, over time, once you get in there, once you get on a boat and once you start swimming in the river, I live now, the river's just at the end of my road. Like, it's barely 10-minute walk, and you can jump in the river there. And we do, we still do on a hot night. It's like, let's go cool off. After school, kids would come home, people would come home, put a few things in the esky, people of the neighborhood, you'd all head down the river. You could have a swim, you could cool off. And just that, you know, it's so, you just feel better when you come. It's not just about the water, but you come home and, you know, the Japanese talk about forest bathing, don't they? You know, get people out there in the environment. And I just love that. As long as I've reconnected back and into that environment, I just feel better.
John Milham (Host) · 10:11
I think it's tough at the moment. I think post-COVID's been really tough. I'm working with a little organization now called Our Town Berrion. We set it Literally, it's a kitchen table organisation. You know, we set up a few of us thinking exactly what you just said. Are we connecting? Are we looking out for each other? What's happening to our sense of community here? Particularly with that focus around— there's so much conversations about mental health and wellbeing, and we're talking a lot about needing services, but maybe it starts before that. Maybe it's about relooking what we do as people in community. And we talk about being at one end of the spectrum is someone trying to access a mental health bed. We're at the other end of the spectrum. What are we doing as community opportunity to maybe stop people going that way. And that's how we came about, just that conversation that we were a bit concerned about some of that happening in our community and what some people doing it tough and not knowing how to connect. We think in our community post-COVID, there was quite a lot of isolation of like families and people not knowing how to come back out again. And I guess my education lens, we were hearing from teachers it was hard to get kids back to school. And, you know, so there's a whole lot of that that I think Maybe in the country it was stronger, but I think we've got to work at it again and we've got to be intentional perhaps about how we're rebuilding some of those connections and including people because it's, you know, there's a town within a town, I always think. There's those who maybe are involved in lots of things and everything, and then there are others that aren't. And why aren't they? Maybe it's sometimes they just haven't been invited in or they just don't know the in, or they haven't had people walk alongside them And that's one of the things that we're working on, and that's what Floodfest was really all about too, is, you know, this is a time that's tough for our community. Are we all just gonna stay home, rabbit in the headlights, or are we all gonna come out of our houses and say, "Yeah, this is tough. What do we need to do to connect to try and help ourselves get through this stuff?" So Floodfest is an acknowledgement of 2 years ago going through that together.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 12:20
What were you like, What were you acknowledging, right? The pain, the suffering, or were you acknowledging the sense of emerging from that as a community?
John Milham (Host) · 12:29
It was the anticipatory anxiety. So what happened in Berry is the powers that be, state government and people managing the emergency, built an artificial wall right along our riverfront. Just was growing and happening and people were coming from other places to build this, other state emergency services.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 12:53
That was the Defence Cell Wall, was it?
John Milham (Host) · 12:55
Yes, this big wall. People in the town were going, "Holy smoke! What does this mean?" because it looked really frightening. It was big and it really started people to wake up because initially, there was just conversation about the flood will come. A lot of the older people were really concerned, people who'd lived through '56 and also the the less floods in the '70s. And the main town is built on a floodplain in Bairnsdale.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 13:23
Yeah, yeah, it's very close to the water.
John Milham (Host) · 13:25
We are very close to the water. And that's where all our services are. So up the top of the river valley is where quite a lot of the housing is. But our main street and our hotels and our caravan park, everything's right on the riverfront there. And while that makes it beautiful for tourism and living, when something like this happens— So there was a whole lot of uncertainty about, and nobody really knew. And there was mixed information coming out about volumes and statistics and things we were all trying to get our head around. And one— people arguing with others saying, "No, no, this is not this and this is not that." And so, there was this whole kind of uncertainty. As well as that, we were moving forward to our school holiday period where, for lots of families, it was like, "But what are we going to do over the summer with the kids?" is what we do. You know, they closed the river. They said you were not allowed to put any boats on the river.. And people were kind of going, "Oh my goodness, we're going to be home with the kids. We can't access the river." We know the heat was coming because it's always really hot where we live. How are we going to manage? Like our whole way of working was being challenged. As well as that, we started to become aware really of being the service town because they opened the emergency centre in Berry. So, people were coming as far as Mannum and they closed the main access road across to Loxton. So, a lot of people work there. Then we had people having to take huge diversions. The central hospital is in Berry. We were hearing stories of people having to come over for dialysis and things via Marook, you know, an hour and a half's drive instead of 20 minutes. There was costs involved with that. So, there was all this sort of whirring of not only managing what we're starting to see the impacts now, but also what was coming next. There was a fear in the community and I guess that's where some of us started to talk about, oh, you know, how are we going to address this? How are we going to open some conversations around this? And the people involved with managing the disasters were very focused on the operational stuff and even our leaders, our mayors and elected members, they were all getting very much drawn into all those conversations. So, in terms of who was looking out for the community, that did feel like a bit of a gap. And we knew that when the kids went off to school, they didn't even have their teachers to go in and have a bit of a cry about if they'd been told they might be evacuating or, you know. So, that was kind of what the conversations were that led to what we did.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 16:04
So, that's fascinating. You've been because, you know, that the trauma of having that, you know, all that disruption and so on. We saw the impact from COVID right, that trickled out, how that can actually change people's experience and their sense of safety, which can actually translate into illness or, you know, anxiety. Operationally, people are building walls. Was there no understanding of the other side, like that there's a need to look after the emotional health of the community?
John Milham (Host) · 16:41
Well, I think there was, but people were a little bit unsure about how you might go about that because there was, you know, in a country town, you've got limited resources. So lots of people were being pulled to do the operational work. We had other things happening like businesses really stressing about what this was going to mean for them because they're just recovering from COVID So,— so for example, the state government started pushing tourism. Go and spend your monies in the region. Well, they're coming up to us, but you can't go on the river, which is why you come. The community are all—
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 17:15
You can't camp.
John Milham (Host) · 17:15
Yeah, community is all quite disrupted. But people were coming because we want to care about them. It was nice. They were filling up the hotel and the caravan park, but they were around town with not much to do. That was interesting as well. I think people were aware and worried about it but not quite sure how to address it. Lots of organisations were talking about it. The State Emergency Service did bring in chaplains and church people and people like that. They had a little— when you went in to get your vouchers and things, you could go and talk to someone, which was good. But there needed to be more than that. It wasn't just about those who were affected by the immediate water, it was the other stuff. It was that, what about, what's it going to mean? And so that's where what happened then was Wellbeing SA, which is now Prevention SA, which is part of the South Australian government. We had our little community group, which was only a couple of years old, you know, operating out of my lounge room in the public library. Didn't even have photocopying, you know, just a little group of folks who were trying to— we'd picked up a bit of philanthropy money and we're trying to do some cool stuff around mentoring and things like that with wellbeing. Well, they had heard of us and worked with us a little bit around community place-based work and were interested in what this community group were doing. So they actually— I got a phone call. This is how it all happened. I got a phone call a couple of days before Christmas from a connection, a person I'd connected with in there, and she said, look, there is some concern about the wellbeing in the community, not just Berry but around. If we provide you with some money, do you think you could do anything about that? No sort of set idea about what we might do. My brain's racking in the conversation. I said, well, we need a bit of money. I thought, if you're going to give us $1,000, go home because we're flat-strapped just managing. We're all volunteers. We've been called into things. We had the school kids working with the Men's Shed and the local SES to fill sandbags. We had a lot of stuff going on. On in this community. Anyway, it was a reasonable amount of money, and I thought, right, that's enough to perhaps pay someone a few hours to try and get something going, work with the volunteers, and get some stuff happening. So literally, I said to her, leave me to it. Got off, got on the phone to a few of the champions that are in our group, who all went, do you reckon we can pull something together? We said, well, let's give it a crack. I went down to the council and I said, look, there's an empty building in the middle of the street. 'Can we have it for a month or so if we do stuff in there and get things happening?' They said, 'Yeah, whatever you need.' Then we pulled together a few people, did some brainstorming. People said, 'Well, we've got all the young artists who've lost all— there's no work for them because all the events have finished. Can we employ some of them to do some music in the street? We've got people that do things in our community. Could we get them in and maybe we have a morning where the dance teacher does a free dance class?' Or maybe we ended up with— we got some Ngarrindjeri artists come in and do some activities. So we just brainstormed a whole list of stuff. I was really lucky that Kiralee, who's a youth worker, who's one of our volunteers, um, she doesn't get paid over the summer because she worked— at the time she was working in the school, so she was available. And she had all the checks and belts, you know, just like win-win, you know. She's got working with children checks and, you know, all that. So she pretty well took the lead, um, and it was— we ended up opening that little building by first week of January, 4 days a week from like 10 to 4 depending on who was around. People came to us. The Woolworths guy crossed the road to say, "What do you need? What are you doing?" We told him. "Whatever you need," he said. You know, they gave us— the Rotary came. "You get sausages, we'll cook a sausage sizzle." We had people— the Suicide Prevention Network lady made cakes and brought them down. You know, everybody want— and what I realized was it was actually supporting those people too, because everyone wanted to do something but no one knew what to do. And all of a sudden we created this space where you could do stuff. And, um, and, and people— and we made it, we called it the Public Living Room. We got someone, got a trailer and brought in a red couch, and we got the urn on. We put a pop-up sign out the front, pop-up wellbeing centre, come on in. And went and got a few pot plants from the garden centre, and, um, and we were off and running.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 21:47
Centralising a space and making it sort of accessible to all comers walking in. What did you learn from that? What were people needing? What was the powerful element that you were providing that was so well received?
John Milham (Host) · 22:06
I think it was connection. I think it was just someone to talk to. People's heads were spinning. The stories that we got listening to people that I don't think we had any idea of the other impacts, you know. Sort of people that came in and said, "Oh, thank goodness this is on. I've got 4 kids at home and I'm struggling, and thank you for doing this." I mean, all we'd do was have some Play-Doh out. One lady, I made her a cup of tea and she burst into tears. She was just exhausted with trying to manage this. It just made you realise that people just want to connect in new and different ways. I think that was, yeah, but I guess what was really surprising was that businesses' feedback and even some of the people who've got businesses and they'd be dashing up to put money in the bank or grab a coffee, they'd stop and have a little bop or we'd give them a cold water and you don't think about the impact on people like that. You know, you're still trying to run your shop not knowing if next week we're going to be shut because there's a flood coming when there's a wall being built. But their wellbeing and the beauty of this, John, is we didn't have to ask them for any money. And in country towns, you're always, you know, asking people to contribute. And that's what I said to Wellbeing is say, you know, if we're going to do this, you need to resource it so that you're not putting more pressure on our community. And it meant that our volunteers, if they had a cool idea, one of the young people wanted to do candle making, I said, we can resource it. Come in, do your stuff. And people came. And I think it's probably not what you traditionally think about putting money into in a disaster, but it It's what's needed. It's— people need a good laugh, need to feel connected, need to feel a bit safe. And yeah, so that's what it provided.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 23:52
Such an interesting idea, right? The idea of like, you know, dealing with cutting off this, you know, getting them out of stress and cutting off downstream issues by, you know, doing all sorts of normal and interesting upstream stuff like, you know, artist work and so on. Like, as you said, it's not normally associated with, uh, with community resilience in a natural disaster, but clearly, uh, a powerful idea. So the, the people, uh, who were there and taking, you know, who didn't have a direct water impact, and then there were people who were impacted by water. How, how did that mesh in a town. Some people are on one side of the wall and some people are on the other. Was that a challenge for people?
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 27:02
So of course, the flood was a kind of slow burn. So that tension rolled up for months and then rolled away slowly as well. But there are still people who haven't had their housing resolved yet. So, you know, what does that— you think after a flood, it comes and goes, the water's gone. It's over, but that's not true, is it? So what's it like in the community knowing that there are still people who are still, you know, loss, dealing with loss every day?
John Milham (Host) · 27:40
It's tough. It's tough. Um, as I said, I can speak to that from, yeah, someone very close to us. It's been very difficult, set them back financially, you know, it's had a big impact on family dynamics. It's, it even affected schooling because Here, if you ended up with housing over the river, those school buses, they go to Loxton High School, whereas the kids on this side of the river go to the Bury Regional School or the Renmark School. So all of a sudden, I know of a family that ended up in temporary housing over the river, but you couldn't get a bus to get your kid to school anymore because your kid's not going to change schools. So they're then driving way out of their way to get their kid to school. It's like the person that was you know, as I said, was on dialysis. You know, the hospital's on the other side. So those things have had a financial impact on families. So maybe your reserves that you'd had are gone, and now you're at a point you're trying to get new leases and properties to live in, and you're really set back. I think there's people who need long-term assistance who have been flood-affected with bombs and, you know, those sorts of things. Maybe we need to be looking in these sort of areas if this is likely to happen again, which people say it could. Housing affordability, you know, what that looks like and how— and that is something I know all our councils are now being quite proactive about because I think we always knew that was a problem, but it really brought it to the fore when you realise there was just no room to move, you know, vacancy zero. I think we normally have vacancies at 0.3% or something. But when it hits zero as a community and I mean, I'm involved in the Girl Guides, we have people like ringing up about camping the hall, you know, that sort of stuff. So, you're right, the long-term effect is not known enough, I think, and there needs to be more longer-term tracking about the implications and even the implications on the cost to our communities. Like, you know, our council's been fighting to get money to get one of the roads reinstated. Now, the road never actually flooded, but it was dug up to build that temporary wall. So who now pays? Our ratepayers? They finally got there, but there was lots of— people didn't really know how to navigate those conversations because it hadn't happened before.
John Milham (Host) · 39:01
Yeah. And the Flood Fest involved lots of things. It wasn't just what we did there. And that was Kiralee coined that phrase. It was so cool. You know, it was like a mini Festival. So we had that center in the street, but we thought, what else could we do? So we, we got it. We hired a comedian because we kept asking people, you know, what else do you want? People said, well, people kept saying we could do the laugh, like, this is all crap, you know, we're feeling really crap. And, um, and we had people, tourists to entertain, and we all need to laugh. So we, um, had been aware of, um, Mark, and now his other name He's been on the ABC. I think he calls himself the Bogan or something like that. But Mark Ryan, that's it, Mark Ryan. We're aware of him as a comedian. We'd heard a bit about him and he does have a wellbeing focus, got some lived experience around that. And so I reached out to Mark, I found him online and said, Mark, do you want to come to Riverland? We've got some money if you want to put on a show. And so he said, yeah, no worries, and I'll bring a mate. The Berry Hotel hasn't had a comedy show for as long as I can remember. So we said to the hotel, "Do you want to put this on? We need a free venue and they can buy you drinks." Then the Suicide Prevention Network president had been popping in and she said, "Well, we'll pay for the supper." So we put on this free show. You had to come into the center and pick up a ticket, which was quite strategic too because people were coming in and seeing what we were doing and connecting. So at a couple of weeks' notice, we just put posters everywhere, "Free comedy show, professional comedian," like, you know, he's in The Fringe and that kind of thing. And we were able to pay him and his mate to come, and the accommodation hotel donated the venue. And they all turned up, and we all had a good laugh. And Mark was able to weave in, because he does do some stuff with Breakthrough Mental Health, he got it about people are going through some tough stuff here, you need a laugh. Let's get some perspective here. So he sort of weaved that in and yeah, so we put on a comedy show, we did the pop-up centre. We also were aware when the kids were going back to school. So what we did is we wrote to each, we divided the money up and we wrote to each of the schools in the Berrybarmah catchment area. And we said, we'd like, we basically said, here's our idea, would you talk to maybe student leaders about what wellbeing means to them? 'Cause we thought it doesn't hurt to keep the conversation going. And if they had some money, what could they do in their school that might help wellbeing as they head back to school after a pretty tricky time in this community. And all we ask is, could you write us a few dot points about what you discovered and could you send us some pictures or a bit of something after? 'Cause I had to equip the grant, of course. And it was gorgeous, John. I got the emails coming in and the schools took it really seriously. They took it to the young people. So, you know, about, empowering the kids to have a conversation. You know, up at the primary school, the kids wanted a colour run. They wanted some deregulation things, like things painted on walls so they could do hand things. The kindy sent us these gorgeous pictures of these children holding up new toys. They just wanted new sand toys because they thought that'd make them feel better.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 42:40
What was important about that to the community and what have they been left with?
John Milham (Host) · 42:45
I think it brought people together at a really difficult time. I think it created relationships. It helped people perhaps not move along that spectrum I talked about, but, you know, it's that capturing people. There's a lot of evidence that if people are feeling, you know, uncertain or whatever, if you can provide positive experiences, they're less likely to fall into the depression and those kind of things. So I would like to think— it's hard to quantify, but I would like to think we held some people's wellbeing so that things didn't get worse. I would like to think that. I think it connected people in ways that maybe they haven't done before, and the spin-offs are still happening from that. I know for a fact somebody got a job out of this because there was one of the artists who came and performed. There was a chap watching and he said, "I'm a performer." And I said, "Oh, are you?" And he said, "Yeah, lost a bit of, you know, haven't really done it for a while, lost a bit of confidence." and he said his name and I Googled him and he was a serious performer. And I went, and he didn't have access to a car and for whatever reason at the time, licence. So I said, well, how about if we pick you up, bring your gear down, would you play? I reckon I could do that, he said. So, you know, good old Julie taps her husband, you're going to go and pick up this guy and all his gear. Down he came and he played. Well, people stopped in the street and went, who the hell is that playing in Berry? Really great musician. Out of it, he's ended up now working again in musical places and convening things and even sent me a message and said, "Thanks for that because that's what I needed." We got people out and about. I guess that was even a bit of a COVID residue. It wasn't just about the flood. I guess it provided a little role model showing the way of you can come together and work stuff out together. You don't always have to wait for some knight in shining armour to come. You can have a go. We were just citizens. People didn't know who we were. I think they did have aspirations that we were some big organisation. I had to kind of say to people, "Well, you know, you got me a few hours a week. Mainly we're volunteers." I think we showed that you can do this. But what we left, I hope, is hope and maybe some connections that help people get through a tough time.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 45:07
John Milham (Host) · 46:01
Yeah, most definitely. And I think we've got to think a bit differently about some of the way that we're navigating those changes. You know, I'm working with a lot of younger people that are quite attractive to the Outtaunbury way, which is very place-based, very flexible. You know, I'm learning from them all the time. They move quickly. They're flexible. They use technology. You know, they're not going to turn up necessarily to organisations with very formal processes and, you know, it's not kind of how they want to work. Doesn't mean they don't want to volunteer. Doesn't mean they don't want to be part of something. But their lives are fast too. We've got to move. And I'm learning, you know, we talk about we show up how we can and we work in a mentally healthy way and even the way our meetings are structured and things like that, they start by, they don't start by talking about the apologies, they start with what's our impact share, what's been our impact this week, who's got a good story and they want to tell their story and this happened and this kid said this and I'm excited about this and I reckon I've got this one signed up as a mentor and then we still have to do some of the what we call the boring governance stuff. Obviously, we're a registered charity now, but we are finding that people are attracted to a bit more community-led and a bit more of a modern, different way of working. So I think we've got to— we can't resist that. We can't resist that. And if we keep trying to say people need to come to this way of working that's been there for a long time, well, if they're not coming, then you maybe got to think about that. Why are they not coming? What could we do differently? What might be more attractive? And you can have lots of creative ways to work with service groups without even people— people could be— actually, someone said to me, they're learning— we've got a Friends of Berry now where people come together and it's a non— you don't have to join. It's just a once-a-month Wednesday in our innovation space and you just turn up and you just talk about whatever. And the conversations out of that and the connections and people who have forming their own little group to do verge planting or whatever they want to do, or, you know, all these different things. But there's no— people don't feel pressured with obligations, or you're not scared you're going to get made the secretary, or— do you know what I mean? Like, I think, I think things have— people want more fluid, um, they're precious of their time. I'm finding young people, um, we got to be respectful of their complex careers and lives and Also, letting people show up in the way that works for them because I think sometimes you can be exclusive if you're not careful, if there's sort of expectations around a group. That's one of the things we're trying to do with our Tjambiri, like, turn up as you are and whatever and just come and have a cup of tea if you want. Just listen to the others or just come and— a few little splinter subgroups have formed or just 'Come and have a chat about what's going on, what's the latest, what are the latest things you, our town, have been up to?' You know, and they like that. It's informal, but it's still that power of connection.
John Milham (Host) · 51:18
That's a good question. I think, I think we're a strong community. We've been here a long time and I think we are quite good at tweaking and changing direction. I think the agriculture stuff is a real challenge, and how to get to those people is a hard thing. So I don't know what our future is going to look like in that space and how do we support those people going through that. I think there's some conversations about that at the moment. I've had a few contacts around, well, what could our town, Bury, do about that? Conversation is, well, what do you think we could do about that? Like, give us some suggestions and ideas because I've got people who want to help. But, and how do we get people in the room that could tell us what could help them? So I think the future of Berry is very bright. I think there is some really strong and determined community people. I think we are working on capability building in our community. You know, the stuff the school's doing is amazing. They're really out there with been nominated for awards doing different things in wellbeing. Because we know if we can build that capability and strength and confidence and resilience, well, everybody's going to learn better, achieve more. I think that's happening. I do think there's a hunger in our— an interest in our community for people to come together around things. As I said, I've certainly seen some energy, like with the Traders Group, that we haven't— it's probably ignited a bit more. We've got brilliant sporting facilities, we've got a progressive, some councillors who want to do some things differently. I feel like Mary's in a bit of a turning spot at the minute. I feel like there's some good things happening. We've got a new community centre opening, so our future looks bright. Our challenge is making sure that we're staying positive and taking as many people as we can on the journey. I think that's what's really important. Anything I can do to you know, add a bit of wisdom to that space or help to get them into trainings and just be alongside people. That's what I love the most. I'm not so keen on organising events. I did all that, but, you know, but again, we're working alongside an amazing young person in Kirilee who was just fabulous, and I learnt so much from listening to her. So I think for me, it's about just, yeah, walking alongside. And the other thing I'm trying to do is find external funding, so I've got to skill set where I can do that kind of stuff. So I'm happy to gift that because that's a challenge as well. Some of that is just getting into this room and telling our tale and then people going, wow, we might back this. Sounds like you're doing some cool stuff. I think the place— we're in a good position with what's happening across the nation with this whole thing about place-based community-led initiatives. I think we could be a role model in that space.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 08:09
Fabulous. So, and of course, so often in small country towns, and as you said, you came and joined the district team, so you would have been spreading your resources in the area into some very small educational spots. The teachers are a part of the beating heart of a small town. Educating young people is such a role. Did you feel like that added to your experience? Was that like what you were meant to do?
John Milham (Host) · 08:45
Absolutely. I think teachers are gold in country communities because they contribute a lot back to community organisations. And I did end up being a principal actually at the local school. And that was one of the things I would say to new teachers when they come. The best thing you can do is get yourself involved in something as quickly as you can, whether it be coaching the soccer team, the local Girl Guides, being on the disability board, whatever it might be, helping at the sausage sizzle, because that's where you formed really great relationships with families and kids. And you got to know the place, you got to know the culture. And, you know, every community has something different, don't they? But you really got to know how things work here. And people are so generous. I found that both when I was over at Ballack on the Wheatbelt and then when I was here. People want to get to know you. Welcome to town and come and have a meal and join us on the table on the club. And I think teachers give a lot because they bring a lot of skills to town, but they also gain a lot because you get to feel a sense of belonging and inclusion that some people might not have even had that from wherever they've come from before.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 09:56
Of course, that sense of community, like often we talk in Australia about having lost the village, having lost our sense of community. Is it alive and well in Australia in the bush?
John Milham (Host) · 24:45
Yeah, I think it was. I think people were struggling to know how to help. I mean, probably you were grateful if you weren't necessarily going to be made homeless, but people did want to help as well. But, you know, John, we've had a tricky situation in that there was no housing, nowhere to go either. So when I talk about that family that ended up living in their van for a while. They got some support to go and live in a caravan park, but they had dogs and a cat. So they had to stay there in the caravan park, not knowing whether they'd ever be able to get back and not knowing whether the landlord was going to let them back because landlords had issues with insurance and safety. But that particular people we were close to, person, it's really taken them another 18 months to get secure housing because there's just nothing. So they've been in not the best circumstances with housing until finally they've managed to nail a long-term rental. So that's interesting too. You think, well, people have got to have somewhere to go, and where are they going to go? The field days, the government did put at the field day site, we've got a big field day site between Berry and Barmah, they did bring in eventually temporary like ATCO huts., and some people were staying out there. So, I do know, I know there was lots of conversations in the Floodfest little venue as to what can we do. People would come in and say, "How can we help people?" And so, you know, that wasn't really our role, but we could try and think of ways that they might be able to help, and we would ask people what they need when they come. But, you know, the main thing we got was that the Emergency Centre were very good. We heard lots of feedback that people had been great. They'd been given vouchers, they'd been given assistance to get temporary housing. The main thing people just wanted was a bit of company and a bit of someone to chat to. They really appreciated that, and a few things to do. Caravan Park donated some vouchers so that families affected by the flood could have a free minigolf game. You know, little things like that to just take the pressure off. So that, yeah, that was interesting that people just said, "What you're doing is right." They said, "We just love this. We can come and have a cup of tea, have a chat." do something different, it's not costing us any money.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 30:02
Yeah. Well, do you think the community feels capable of supporting the people who are still dealing with stuff in there, and of course the residue for everybody, right? Because it, you know, loss and, you know, the impact is community-wide. You think the community feels empowered or capable of dealing with this, or is this something that sort of sits there, no one— and people scratching their head?
John Milham (Host) · 30:28
Yeah, to a certain degree, I think, um, people are not quite sure, um, how to go about it. There's still a lot of emotions will run high about things, you know, people wanting infrastructure to be done quicker than it can be. That puts pressure on your decision makers who are trying to do the best for communities, but it doesn't just happen overnight, you know. So, I think there is certainly a strong will to do things, but again, we're navigating spaces that We haven't done this before. It's quite new to our community. So capability building in rural communities to me is a really important thing that we've got to focus on. And that's one of the things our little organisation's doing. Some of the young volunteers we've had, getting them into rural leadership programs. Not assuming that people have got skills to navigate complex things because we are, Berry is almost a community of cascading disasters, someone said to me. Like, we go, you know, 10-year drought, we go COVID, we go flood, we're back in drought. We've got wine grape prices issues. You know, in the past we've lost our fruit factory. Like, it's just our constant, really. It's like, what's the next challenge coming our way? So building that resilience and perhaps being a bit more intentional about it and the capability of people to navigate complex situations, I think is really important. And I think it's, it's really important in focusing when we're working with young people in this community. How do we think outside of the box a bit more? How do we encourage entrepreneurial thinking, um, you know, social innovation, looking at things differently and having the courage to have a go? And that's one of the reasons we talk about being a test and learn organisation, because if you're always looking for the perfect solution, we're not going to do anything. And our fore— you know, the people who, you know, First Nations people and also after colonization, the people that were doing things were not instant experts. They were people who had a go and learned how to read environment, read signs, build and connect. That's the stuff that— and a bit of strategic leadership too. They're the things that I think we can build in our communities, and there are ways to go about that, and that's what we're trialling. I mean, even our mentoring program, we've got a thing, really cool thing going at the high school now where there's community mentors, amazing generous people in our community who volunteer some time every week to mentor a young person. Well, that's passing on of wisdom, you know, that's, it's, and maybe young people these days don't always get to connect with older people, their grandparents or whatever. So we— and we're getting some great feedback. The kids are loving it, the young people are saying, "Oh, this is amazing," and they turn up. Some of them don't go to school, but they might come on that day because they love meeting with, you know, their cool guy. And the mentors are saying how they're really feeling privileged to learn more about young people's lives and their fears. And yeah, so that mentoring piece just started with a bit of a test and learn, and we're a few years down the track now. We've got quite a We've got a team of amazing mentors and kids are keen to be involved and we've got people wanting to fund it for us. It's just bringing people together and then those young people, when they're down the street and they meet up with one of the mentors, you know, it's, "G'day, how are you today?" And, you know, and that passing on of wisdom, I think it's really important with building resilience and new capabilities. Most definitely. I don't think it just happens because you live in rural communities. I think people do need guidance and support and education, and I know it's great to see there is a good focus of that, you know, across Australia, things like the Resilience Project that have filtered out into our communities for sure. That whole thing about learning how to navigate tough stuff, there's quite a skill set to that. And I think if we keep assuming that people can do that, yes, it works well for lots of people, but these are complex lives now. Maybe when you were in the early days or settling, they may not have had quite as much complexity coming at you. So the problem you were dealing with might have been more of a distinct problem at the time. Whereas I think now, you know, we've got information overload, haven't we? Let's be honest. And things are coming at you. So you've got to know how to navigate that. And I think there's a lot of benefit in teaching resilience. And I've seen examples where people have been intentional about it. And afterwards, kids can be quite proud and say, oh, you know, I really thought, yep, I can do this. Or, you know, that self-talk and goal-setting and developing empathy and all those things that we know build resilience. It's, yeah, in my view, I think it would be somewhere we could invest even more as communities in. I think we are doing it. We're seeing a lot of really good funding flowing around Mental Health First Aid training and that kind of thing. But I think the resilience training is really important too. And not just people going to one-off courses, but people trained in your community who can walk along side people and develop it as we go, you know, more of as a long-term view. Because resilience is also about being willing to have a go at things. You know, and we've done quite a lot of work here with young people and volunteering because we wanted to bring generations together more because we think that's valuable in our community. And so volunteering was a good way to do that. And people have this, you know, notion that young people don't want to volunteer. Well, we've turned that on its head and that's not true. We've got now thousands of hours of youth volunteering. But we showed them the way in because not everybody has had that opportunity. We had young people who kind of went, "What's this thing about volunteering?" You know, and young people say, "Oh, you mean they'd let me do that?" Like nobody had given them the in and then, you know, we can make this assumption they don't want to. Well, if you haven't been in an environment or a family or whatever where that was what happens. I mean, we all see the volunteers that, you know, the dad's the secretary of this and the kids then become that and that. But what about the kids that want an in to that? Maybe their parents haven't got the confidence or the resources, the petrol money to get them to things. And so, you know, I think resilience can be built a lot by getting kids out into different circumstances and a bit out of your comfort zone by trying something new. But they also get a buzz out of it. It builds that wanting to give back. I mean, the example with the filling of the sandbags, you had to see that to believe it. The SES put out a call, "We need help to do it." The school said, "Well, hang on a minute, we've got labour here." The kids were, "Who wants to go?" "Yep, yep." Busloads. The Men's Shed made a frame so that it would make it easier and they could hang the bags on. The SES couldn't believe it. They filled hundreds of bags within days because they just sent teams of kids and then the next slot would go and the next slot would go. And then the footy club caught on what was going on and they said, "Well, if they can do that in the day instead of doing footy practice, we'll take the footy club up and we'll do them at night." But the pride the kids had and the— they had to do a bit of problem solving, they had to work, they had to listen to the people. That's on the ground learning how to be resilient and how to be confident and how to maybe take action when something needs to be done. So that was, yeah, that was a pretty cool story came out of the flood. I love it.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 38:44
It's amazing. I love the idea too, what you were doing at the Wellbeing Center, right? Um, you turned then, took, you know, to carry on and to move into the next phase, you turned into the Flood Fest, really, didn't you?
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 42:10
Like, hey!
John Milham (Host) · 42:11
And the special school, they sent us pictures of some of the young people with portable microphones in the yard. The kids just wanted to sing more because they thought that'd make them feel better. It was really positive and it acquitted the last few thousand dollars and kids did really fun things and had good memories and it was tracked and maybe helped the year start with a bit of fun. That was what we did with it and we didn't keep a cent of it in the end. We made sure it all went back into the community.
That's beautiful. I grew up in a country town. You know, I remember those institutions that were like the lifeblood of the town, the CWA, the, you know, the Lions, Apex, and Rotary, and, you know, you know, all the groups, uh, you know, the, the Guides and, and, and Scouts and stuff. Um, and but your modern Australia seems to have sort of splintered off, and those, those groups are struggling or not attracting younger people and so on. Do you think this is the way back to some of those, you know, sort of community activities? Do you think, you know, clearly I'm hearing together is a much more powerful and resourceful place than alone. Do you think there's an important lesson not just for Berry but for the Riverland and for Australia?
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 49:03
Julie, what's your favorite thing about, like, you know, do you feel like there's been benefit in the challenge of the flood and stuff? What do you like about what you've done?
John Milham (Host) · 49:15
What do I like about what we've done? I think being intentional about connecting people and bringing them the wellbeing conversation, not just mental health conversation, but actually about positive wellbeing. Because often the mental health can be seen as a negative tone to it because there is stigma still, whether we like— I think we're getting there, but there is, whether we like it or not. But when you shift that on its head and say we're talking about ways that we connect, ways we build positive wellbeing, ways that we have fun together, ways that we back each other when tough stuff happens. That is all mental health and helping mental health, but not always putting it in a way that you feel like you've got to be fixed. You know, it's just saying there are challenges here, but there's a whole lot of ways we can navigate them. And if we have a laugh along the way and make a new friend and have a cup of tea, well, You know, that's really since time began, the way that people have looked after each other, hasn't it? And, um, not to say all those other particular things can be really valuable, and we've learned people by listening to people. People tell us other things they would like to learn and be more strategic about. Um, but I think that's what I'm proud of, is that the conversa— the whole thing was about fun. It wasn't about catastrophe or It was just about bringing people together, having a bit of fun and connecting together and saying, "We're in this together, let's look out for each other." I think it worked really well.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 50:45
Well, it sounds fabulous and of course, you continue to do fabulous work in the community. I think it's a lot of inspiration and bringing those people together has created a real resource for the town. Well done. Just maybe a last question. What do you see in the future? Because, you know, you mentioned and there is talk that, you know, another flood's possible and a drought's coming and, you know, there's more challenges. What are you seeing, your personal view of the future of Berry?
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 54:05
Beautiful.— and so we'll take, to finish up then, I'll take the opportunity with whatever platform we have, what are you going to ask someone out there, Julie, what are you going to ask them for?
John Milham (Host) · 54:17
Some long-term funding would be good because it's pretty tiring, the short-term grant stuff all the time. So someone who'd like to back us for a few years in some funding would be great. Funding that's not always about activities but also about employing people and operational stuff, because you can pick up lots of funding to do things, but who's going to do all that? There's only so much that volunteers can do. So we're looking for people in our community who'd like to work alongside us, um, with some funding that's not tied to external agendas, but that we can have a say in what we need in our community. And I can guarantee every dollar would be well spent.
Julie Ahrens (Guest) · 54:55
Oh, that's beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing both the challenge and the good news and all of that amazing work that you guys have been putting in on the ground, both in response directly to the event and in response to the challenges of being a small town in Australia with so many things coming at you, you know, the cascade. It's brilliant. It's been wonderful to talk to you, Julie, and all the best. Thank you very much, and Katsugi Heroes, thanks to you for sharing such an interesting and powerful story.
John Milham (Host) · 55:34
Thank you, John. Thank you for listening to this episode of Riverland Recovery Stories. If anything in this conversation has had a triggering effect, please seek support and reach out to someone who can help keep you safe. If you found this conversation interesting or helpful, please share it with your friends, family, and colleagues so we can help more people with their recovery from natural disasters. To find out more about Kintsugi Heroes and our other projects, head to kintsugiheroes.com.au. Thank you to our production team, Kintsugi Heroes volunteers, and most importantly, the Riverland community for sharing their lived experience.
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