The alarm goes off, and I hit snooze. But I can’t do it, so I’m up straight away and into my second home (the Ops room). Well it’s probably my first home, as I’m in there about 16 hrs a day. Friday is crazy busy. I get the folks out on the ground to get amongst the community as usual; it’s the last full day on the ground so everyone is geared up for a big effort. We continue with the supply depot and mobile runs, but I have two teams on ‘fence work’ as well. Removing fallen and/or burnt out trees from the owner’s fence-line and then removing the fence itself may not seem hugely significant. But livestock is the staple here; it is their livelihoods and it keeps the sheep, horses and cattle in. Its hard work in the conditions though, not hot by Aussie standards, but hot if you are up and down hills all day, hefting a chainsaw, dragging fence posts out and coiling wire that has a mind of its own. And a barbed strand at the top of course. But the teams have been together for a few days now, they are well formed and work well together. Efficient in fact. They are all out by 8, and between 4 and 5 they return; sweat soaked, red faced and dirty. Sun lotion is important out here and everyone is now well used to regular application, but out on these dirty jobs the lotion mixes in with the sweat and dust and ash , so you end up rubbing your arms with a horrible gunky, grey, oily, gritty, lubricant. If we were at a spa they’d call it defoliant. Out here it takes two or three proper hard attempts in the shower to get it out of your skin, almost.
We have a Baar-be tonight, and the local fire chief comes along too. He tells us a little of the time when the fire came through the town, on 21 November last year, a day no-one will forget. The town of Buchan is in the bottom of a valley, surrounded by rolling hills. But fire does strange things, the fire came through around 10pm and the temperature hit 68 degrees, Centigrade, in the Fire station where he was coordinating the response. By 7 am it had largely passed the town, with only peripheral damage, but he said it was still above 40…
My day is not don yet though, I have another ‘walk-in’ resident requesting some support. We go through the details and I Q it up for Monday. It can be a little tricky because many people are not actually living at their properties, especially the surrounding farms, as there is nothing but ash and rubble. Heart-breaking to hear.
We have been in town a week and though we have done a lot of work already, the wait list is now even longer than when we arrived. Its good to know we have another team coming in behind us, but just emphasises how much work there is to do in the community, as all we are really doing is help clear up, we are not actually helping the rebuild. But I guess it is small steps…
Keep up the amazing work out there! Everyone must be so relieved to get some help, sounds hard work but you have achieved a lot Phil, good luck for the next few days,
Some new sights indeed Phil, but great work no doubt, albeit on an emotional and physical rollercoaster. Look forward to catching up when you get back mate. Andy T