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WITH DROUGHT AND FIRE RELIEF
Towns and communities in the Northeast of Victoria have been hit by the double tragedy of the worst drought in memory as well as bushfires that took 69 days to contain. Rotary clubs can help these fire affected communities in many practical ways. Your club can pick a project and make a difference to the lives of a whole community.
FOR FARMERS:
Arrange a fodder drive for farmers with no feed left in paddocks, and haystacks burnt. Provide financial assistance with water cartage costs, tanks and poly pipe for people left with no water, and water pipes burnt in the fires. Provide fencing materials for those who have lost fences in the fires. Help a farmer construct new fences.
Get a small crew together and help a farmer pull down burnt fences, then help construct new ones.
FOR CHILDREN:
Provide funding to small schools to help subsidise school excursions, school camps, and swimming programs. Provide funding for a "big day out" for school kids to have some FUN (travel to town, see a movie, go bowling or recreational swimming, buy lunch, etc). Work with a school community to create a BBQ area, seating area or some other community asset. Help with back to school expenses for victims of the fires and drought.
FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES:
Finance or host a "fire relief" dinner for a community Offer holiday houses near water for a group of families to escape the heat and smoke. Donate to small CFA brigades. (Local groups still have to fund-raise for a portion of any new equipment that they get). Host a rural community for a day out in Melbourne with lunch, tickets to the football, etc. Donate to the District 9790 fire/drought appeal.
Tourism is really suffering in fire affected regions. Get a group of friends together and stay in the country for a weekend or a few days. Spend money in the country town. Stay in a motel or B&B, eat in the restaurants, visit the wineries and tourist attractions, buy your petrol and groceries in the town you visit to keep the town's economy going.
Further information about District 9790 initiatives can be obtained from:
| Alan Anderson, Assistant Governor, Rotary Club of Eltham Chairperson Email: ag-groupone@rotary9790.org.au |
Kim Scanlon, Rotary Club of Benalla. Committee member Email: ckcamp@iinet.net.au |
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Rotary Club Of Benalla's Contribution To The Benalla Rural City Drought Strategy |
When it comes to the drought and a local government response to it, the Benalla Rural City has been quite progressive. When the Spring rains did not come as usual last year, and it became obvious that this year would produce the worst rainfall year on record for the Shire, a meeting was called of all interested parties from within the Benalla Rural City to form a drought strategy committee for the district.
Agencies that were represented at the initial meetings included Shire representatives and Councillors, Service Clubs, (Rotary and Lions) Department of Primary Industry (DPI) staff, Landcare coordinators, CFA fire captains, representatives from the local water board, church representatives, the Local member of Parliament, vets, Rural Financial Counsellors, Community Health representatives, Centerlink representatives, a Rural supplies businessman, Stock and Station agents, small business representatives and Victorian Farmers Federation reps.
It was noted by the meetings that as Benalla existed to serve the surrounding rural communities, everyone both in town and in the surrounding districts would be impacted by a prolonged drought, and even more so if there were to be fires in the area. (As indeed happened).
After an initial meeting, a second round-table conference conducted under the guidance of a professional facilitator resulted in two actions:
- Four sub-committees were developed that were to report to an executive board The Committees were: Communications Social events/education Health/Wellbeing Physical Support Rotary was to be involved on the Social events and Health/Wellbeing committees.
- That everyone at the meetings wanted ACTION from the Shire, not just a "talk-fest"
It was decided that the most effective way to support the community directly was through a series of breakfasts around all the outlying hamlets surrounding Benalla. Each Tuesday and Thursday during January breakfasts were conducted by Rotarians and Lions members at a different community hall each time, and representatives of all the Government departments attended to give advice and counselling to farmers that attended. Most breakfasts had 40-50 farmers attending, who sat down to a free cooked breakfast and asked many questions of the Councillors, and had their concerns followed up.
The final breakfast is to be held on Feb 7th and will be held in Benalla for small business people who are now also "feeling the pinch". We expect about 100 people to attend this function. Depending on demand, the breakfasts may well be repeated with the onset of Autumn weather, or they may be run as night activities. For the time being, the culmination of these breakfasts will be a free "Picnic in the Park" on the afternoon of March 3rd for all residents of the Shire. The day will include local bands playing, as well as the Victorian Police show-band. Again Rotary will be providing a BBQ.
From January 11th onwards, the Bushfires also impacted the Shire. The breakfasts 
continued but Rotarians in conjunction with the Red Cross also fed a cooked breakfast for up to 400 fire-fighters at the Molyullah Staging area, where crew changed over from night to day shift.
The fire was devastating for the landowners in the southern and eastern parts of the Shire. Scare water supplies were used up, what little grass left in paddocks was burnt, and native wildlife was forced onto open ground to complete with domestic stock for any feed put out. The fire kept coming out of the bush into people's backyards, and in some cases the waiting for the fire caused more stress than the actual fire event. Many people experienced anxious days waiting for the King Valley fires of December 1st and onwards to reach them, only to be hit directly by the January Tatong fires. The rural communities in the line of fire have experienced 8 continual weeks of stress and hardship from the fires and to this day the fires are still being patrolled by the local brigades 24/7 and are contained rather than extinguished.
The Shire drought strategy committee has now become the fire response committee as well.
All Landholders that were affected by the fires have been visited by the VFF, the DPI and the Shire's Rural Counsellor. Everybody has had their properties assessed for the amount of damage caused to buildings and paddocks, what stock is left, water supplies left, amount of fencing destroyed, and what parts of the farm are insured or uninsured. From this data, a list of landholders that need help has been compiled.
All future donations of fodder or materials will go to a central "depot" and the goods will be distributed to landholders from here, all the time making sure that everyone that needs help is offered a hand. Most farmers have already received 4 or so big bales of hay, and we hope to be able to distribute more in time. We welcome any donations of fodder or fencing materials as many people had fences that back onto Crown land, and the government won't pay for these fences to be replaced.
The first Rotary club from District 9790to help these farmers was the Rotary Club of Sunbury, who donated a large truck load of fodder and fencing materials. The goods donated from the Rotary Club of Sunbury went to two farmers and members from the club visited one of the farmers that they helped. Chris is a stay at home dad, a Lieutenant in the local CFA and a contributor in many ways to the local community. Vicki is the families' main income earner and works in Benalla. They have lost a lot of their fences and they were not insured. As they back onto Crown land, they will have to pay the full cost for all their new fences. The fire came right up to their backyard, on three sides, and with the help of a chopper and a couple of tankers, they were able to save their house and outbuildings. They had a very scary time.
There is no decent rain in sight yet for the North east of Victoria, so the drought/fire committee will have work to do for some time to come. We envisage that we will have fire and drought recovery work to do for at least another 12 months, even if we get average rain in Autumn/Winter. Any further help that Rotarians can provide in either cash or kind will be gratefully accepted.
Further information can be obtained from
Kim Scanlon
Rotary Club of Benalla
Drought Committee Representative
Ph: 0357 666 297
Email: ckcamp@iinet.net.au
6th February 2007 Top
Click here for a list of affected schools or it is available from any member of the committee
Rotary Clubs wishing to donate some cash or goods towards any of these schools can either donate to the District 9790 fire and drought appeal, deal directly with the school through a contact person, or you can contact Kim Scanlon, Rotary Club of Benalla for some help in coordinating your efforts. Kim is a teacher in the district and knows most of these people.
She can be contacted on
03 5766 6297 AH or
by email at ckcamp@iinet.net.au
If clubs do make a donation to a particular school/s, could they please email Kim with the particulars of their donation so that all donations are spread fairly across the schools, and don't all go to the same school.
TopPictured are some of the children from Greta Valley inspecting their packs.
KIM SCANLON, Rotary Club of Benalla, distributed the backpacks to the Greta Valley Primary School and Myrrhee Primary school kids. They were VERY well received. The smallest kids had the packs on their backs within a couple of minutes and a couple of them spent all lunchtime with them on their backs. They wouldn't leave them alone, as you can see in the photo. A great treat, that made 50 kids very happy. Well done. February 2007
HOW ROTARY CLUBS CAN HELP
BUSHIFE AFFECTED SCHOOL COMMUNITIES
The bushfires of the 2003 summer produced many lessons in how to handle bushfires, and the recovery process that is necessary after the event. However this time, the bushfires have accompanied a crippling drought and the fires have become the last straw for many rural families. There are a great number of people living in the Northeast of Victoria under severe and prolonged stress.
Kids feel the impact of this through a reduction in spending patterns in the home, continually anxious parents, and living in a smelly, smoky environment amongst dried out or even blackened paddocks. The drought and fire "hits you in the face" every day.
Those schools that were directly impacted by the 2006/07 fires and had to have their school closed have been given a $1,000 cash grant from the State Government as part of the Bushfire recovery process, but this is only a starting point for these schools.
Rotary Clubs can help our school children in a number of ways. The easiest way is through a cash donation directly to the school. The School Council can then determine how to spend their money most appropriately, in their own time.
Schools are telling me that their families are coping with back to school expenses, but are struggling to find payments for excursions, camps and swimming programs. For example, a small school 32kms from its nearest town that takes their kids into swimming lessons over a seven day period needs to find $175 per trip for the bus, plus the swimming fee. So transport alone is going to cost over $1200. If the school has 30 kids, it will cost parents $40 per child just to get them to the pool. As kids in towns are often walked to the pool for their swimming lessons, these are the extra costs that rural people bare.
Some suggestions from the schools: Money for transport costs for either swimming programs, or other excursions Money for a "big day out" for the kids in a school (maybe including a trip to the nearest provincial center, including a trip to the movies, ten pin bowling, recreational swimming and lunch at McDonalds; all the things that kids on tight family budgets may miss out on now)
A day trip to Melbourne where Rotarians help with the day, would be good Subsidising a school Camp Donation towards a "fire relief" dinner for the school community where people can get together and talk about their experiences and support each other Help to construct a community BBQ area or seating area for the school and community. Organising a weekend away from the district for families. We are all dreaming of cooler weather/somewhere near water/ or the beach at present
Some of the schools have mentioned that it is a bit early yet to know exactly what their school community needs, as the fires are still impacting some people when the weather blows up hot. The fires are not extinguished, just contained. The teachers themselves have lived through, and fought the fires, and are trying to get their own homes in order as well as their schools.
On-going, follow up contact from a Rotary Club that has established a relationship with a school through an original donation would be welcome.
The best thing to do is to establish contact with a school, develop a relationship with the individual school and work on a project together. Both your Rotary Club and the school community will come out the better for the experience of working together.
Be aware that many families won't accept individual, targeted help as a matter of pride. It is better to give a donation to the whole school rather than a set of vouchers or goods for select families, to save embarrassment.
For further information, please contact
Kim Scanlon
Rotary Club of Benalla Drought/Fire response coordinator.
Ph: 0357 666 297 AH
Email: ckcamp@iinet.net.au
