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Blaze Aid Fencing Project |
Friday the 17th started off early for Chris Hopkins, Neil Watt and Roger Fletcher; 7:15 am was the pick up time for Chris and Neil to pick up Roger in Preston for the trip to Clonbinane, whilst Ron Turner, Don Hamilton, Bill O’Halloran and Ian Richards left Heidelberg at 7:30am for the same destination. Both vehicles towed trailers, one complete with the fencing tools the other empty ready for transporting fence posts, wire and accessories from a secure part of the property to the fence line ready for the installation, (already such materials are being stolen if left too close to the front boundaries.). The first named three volunteers also arranged for certain tools with Neil being appointed the Tool man.
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| The team having morning tea. From left: Bill O’Halloran, Chris Hopkins, Ron Turner, Roger Fletcher, Don Hamilton and Neil Watt (Ian Richards was behind the camera) |
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| Roger Fletcher (left) and Don Hamilton) |
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| Some of the difficult landscape under which the team works. |
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| More difficult conditions. |
The job started off with the erection of the strainer posts or corner assemblies and intermediate pine posts installation. Four fellows were involved with the assemblies the other three installing the posts. As Ron, (supposedly ) was the only one experienced with this type of work there were many questions, comments and suggestions made not only to assist with the procedure but also to destroy many of the proved and accepted ways of achieving our objective. I say supposedly the only one, because it was not long before we discovered Don Hamilton not only grew up on a farm but also graduated at the famous Dookie Agricultural College in Victoria. Don claimed to be a little rusty on the subject, he had forgotten certain procedures, but it was not long before he and I were fighting for first use of the wire strainers.
We both felt completely reassured that we were doing the job right from the continual descriptive and constructive,? advice issued by Neil Watt. Roger Fletcher became our pencil man; watched and listened intently and, took it all in (the problem was he kept wandering off with the pencil) at which time his Engineering background was apparent from his comments relating to simple physics. Bill O'Halloran and Ian Richards teamed up very well, quickly mastering the accuracy of post marking, drilling the wire holes and tying off the fencing wire to both timber and steel posts.
The drilling posts exercise involved an electric drill and generator the latter of course rather heavy and having to be carried by hand to each individual position for convenience of drilling, Neil Watt once again advised continuously on drilling procedures with the result being we agreed to drill the five holes in each post rather than his system of drilling the one hole in each post and having to walk and carry the generator fifty times up and down the fence line, it was at this time we had to get more water into Neil, his tongue had become very dry.
The manual task done by Ian of carrying the generator proved to be good stretching exercise. Later on when changing to go home I noticed one of Ian’s arms was a foot longer than the other, whilst Bill did not have to get changed as the only part of his clothing to become dirty was the seat of his pants. Chris Hopkins specialised in corner assemblies, very good on the crow bar at levering stay bars and ensuring accuracy of measurements. As the experienced member of the team, and the quiet achiever who gets things done, this week he remembered to bring his lunch then forget to pick up his hammer by leaving it in the paddock. His advice of not worrying about the tools because most of them belonged to Ron Turner proved to be correct because the Tool man not only forgot to account for the hammer belonging to Chris but also Ron Turners rake as well!.
Neil Watt - what a delight to work with - to see this big strong guy back ramming a post hole with the top end of the bar was something to see, his enthusiasm was inspiring. Along with Bill and Ian all posts were installed and rammed in record time, never missed a beat and maintained a continuous physical motion with a descriptive informative verbal session at every post hole, next time we should allow for much more water for Neil.
Because two or three of the team had to be back in Melbourne at around three pm we agreed to knock off at two, that proved to be good timing because at around two thirty I could not help but notice my six fellow volunteers all looked to be experiencing the same characteristic as Neil, an obvious drooping of the bottom jaw exposing an open and dry mouth, myself included.
We did not quite complete the fence. There still remains the ring lock to stretch up along the total length of the boundary fence plus a shorter run of internal fencing constructed but requiring wire and the ring lock, however about 130 metres of fencing has now almost been installed.
Chris is organising a team to finish off the work for next Friday. I am sorry I will not be able to assist as I will be in Tasmania for a ten day break. In summary a great days work performed by a team of people who I am very proud to be associated with. We had great Fellowship, a lot of fun and once again all feel happy within ourselves as a result of our effort in doing something for somebody caught up in this terrible disaster. I now look forward to our continuing activity with this project, one that will prove to be enjoyable and much easier as we develop an expertise for this particular work.
A great team effort for the Rotary Club of Rosanna, and one very grateful land holder who now has all her bounday fences replaced.
A great big THANK YOU to all concerned I hope others will soon join us, girls included.
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| From left: Chris Hopkins, Roger Fletcher, Don Hamilton, Mary Avola (property owner) and Neil Watt... Ron Turner behind the camera. |
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| From the left, Ron Turner, Ron Jenkins, Don Hamilton and Chris Hopkins on site at St Andrews. Image courtesy Leader Newspapers. |
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Last Friday saw us down on numbers with both Neil and Roger with other commitments; Ron Jenkins was able to attend which gave us four members for the day's events.
Don, Chris and Ron left Ron's place this time in the F100 at 7.45 am for the trip to St Andrews, Ron Jenkins made his own way from Warrandyte meeting us there at around 8.30. Neil and I had inspected the property the week before. It is very hilly in fact exceptionally hilly, steep, many very large burnt trees and surrounded by several State Government instrumentalities, all virtually classified State Forests.
The property is hard hat country with little access for machinery including tractors. We were therefore required to install all the strainer assemblies by hand as well as carrying most of the posts and materials in the trailer close to the various assembly positions, then by hand the rest of the way.
Roger had arranged through Leader Publisher to have a photographer attend for the coming editorial covering our September 2nd Blaze Aid, Kevin Butler night. After many lost phone calls from the camera man who could not find the place, and after dispatching Ron Jenkins on a "Go Find The Guy" mission I finally climbed one of the many Mount Everests on the property to contact him. He finally found us, whilst I contemplated parachuting back to where the boys were waiting.
We had already dug our first strainer post hole and installed the post before the camera guy arrived, we were then able to get on with the job with him closely photographing the many procedures we were involved in. These included transporting the posts and wire unloading materials, digging the holes, removing old burnt posts with the use of chains attached to the F100 and an abundance of swearing (fortunately the latter could not be photographed) all the time getting as wet as shags, sliding around in the mud and fighting to stand up against the wind storms. The trees were bending and swaying excessively and I was glad every one had safety helmets whilst remembering Craig's comments the week before to keep out of the area if it got too windy.
After considerable time and probably one hundred photographs the camera man thanked us for our co-operation and the good time he had enjoyed. He was needed in other places and had to leave, I pleaded with him to stay because never before had we done so much in so little time and his presence would have to be the main reason for our outstanding achievement. He saw the joke and left leaving us with the promise he would Email the file to us without too much delay.
It is true we did get a lot done. We dug and installed a total of eleven posts that day with the majority into a depth of three feet. We are within 130 metres of completing post and strainer assemblies, leaving plain and the mesh wire to install for job completion.
We met David James the owner of the property, a nice, jovial guy who has advised he will be working with us next Friday on the fence line. David also confirmed he and his wife could not get out during the fires; his wife got burnt on both arms and they walked out the next day, 24 hours after the fires. The property is only accessible by a track which is probably 1.5 km from the main road.
The week before whilst Neil and I were there, we could not find any one at the property. We did stumble onto two very large white dogs who were far from friendly. We both told them what we thought of them and where they should go, whilst heading off in the opposite direction, totally believing they could not see us and would leave us alone. The latter part was OK but David confirmed we were wasting our time yelling abuse at them as they are a French breed and you need to speak to them in French. His wife Vivienne speaks French and she is the only one they will respond to, the things you have to do to become a successful Fencer is becoming rather demanding.
| 2 September 2009 |
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| From left: Chris Hopkins, Ron Turner, Effie (F100), Don Hamilton and Ron Jenkins. Image courtesy Leader Newspapers. |
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| From the left, Ron Turner, Ron Jenkins, Don Hamilton and Chris Hopkins. Image courtesy Leader Newspapers. |
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With Neil back he was able to pick up Roger at 8am whilst Chris and Don were treated to another trip with me in the good old Effie. ( F100 )
The weather today was much improved on last week. We were able to get straight into setting up the final 130 metre remaining section, the strainer, bracing and horizontal 3 metre posts were all carried in by hand, and because this final strainer assembly was a corner assembly five substantial lumps of timber were required. Getting it done first up was great. We were all fresh enough and it was not long before the three post holes were dug, posts installed and rammed then bracing poles installed and tensioned up.
We then installed the star stakes, pulled the plain wire through, tied off all the ends and rolled out and tied off the hinged joint (ringlock). All wire is now ready to be strained up after the front section is in and tightened
We also completed all the remaining assemblies ready for new plain wire while re-using the original mesh, in what we call the front section.
David the property owner was busy all day with Grocon; they had some pretty heavy equipment there clearing and carting away the remains of the home. David looked sad when he showed us an army issue copper button, he had found it in the ruins of the house. He went on to tell us it was off his father's uniform which was lost in the fire. His father was a Medic in the last world war.
So ended another productive day, another of mixed emotions, enjoyable by the fact we were able to achieve great satisfaction by completing a fair amount of the work in very enjoyable company, delightful to observe the obvious enjoyment and satisfaction displayed on the face of the owner David, sad in the experience of sharing a memory of a loved one, with the only remaining physical or material object being a copper button.
This is why we get so much satisfaction in volunteering our time to this Fencing Project. These people who have experienced this disaster have suffered enough, any assistance we can give is going to help in establishing them back in to the communities they once enjoyed.
