Help Murwillumbah and the Tweed Valley Region
Donation protected
In 2017, the Tweed Region experienced devastating floods. What was meant to be a one in hundred-year event happened again less than 5 years later in February 2022. This time the flooding was worse. These catastrophic floods decimated entire communities, with early estimates suggesting 3,000 homes have been impacted or lost. These figures are from the Tweed Region only.
In the first seven days of these floods, it was utter carnage. Broken cars lined the streets. Petrol stations were wiped out. Telecommunications were non-existent. There were no ATMs, banks or eftpos-only cash. Individuals, families, and entire streets were waiting for rescue, but completely inaccessible. Entire roads, missing as a result of landslides.
Right now, there is vast destruction, immense suffering, and both human and animal death. It’s difficult to convey the loss, but, there’s hope. From the mud, we will rise.
Our objective is simple: identify the needs of people and mobilise impactful resources. In a building intended to become a taproom and brewery now holds a Volunteers Hub. This epicenter of information and help is designed to rebuild the lives of our community at their doorstep. We’re not an ivory tower asking impacted people to come to us—we’re on the front lines at an individual household level to ensure no one is lost and people get adequate help. Like us, they’re everyday Australians and we’re here to support them getting back on their feet. We want each household to meet minimum standards and be lifted to the level they were before the floods, or in a more beneficial position.
With over 6,000 volunteers in less than two weeks, we’ve been able to deploy the following services:
01) Scouting missions to identify isolated families and communities in need.
02) High-risk missions delivering: food, water & generator drops to isolated communities including kayaking river crossings and hiking 5km+
03) Low-risk missions delivering: food, water & cleaning products delivery to accessible community members
04) Purchase of all essential supplies & stocks (we get no government funding and we actually supply the ADF with shovels, wheelbarrows, gurneys & water pumps). The ADF get jobs allocated to them from our Volunteers Hub every morning.
05) Purchase of “small” items that assist in recovery efforts such as: mops, squidgy-ma-jigs, disinfectant, broomes, gloves, shovels, masks, gumboots, buckets etc.
06) Purchase of “large” items that assist in recovery efforts: gas cookers, gurneys, water pumps, wheelbarrows, hoses & fittings, wet/dry vacs, jerry cans, petrol / diesel,
07) Mobilise heavy equipment such as bobcats, excavators, dump trucks to assist getting through piles of mud ridden items, clean houses and clean streets.
08) Clearing landslides & private roads. We have utilised heavy equipment to open up isolated communities through clearing landslides. The SES had no helicopter droff off points in the hill country due to terrain difficulties so it was up to us to service these communities.
09) Needs assessments. We are identifying deeper community needs though through door-to-door household level assessments - this information is used to drive our white good purchases and getting items out to the community to get them back to “business as usual”. We target servicing those people without flood insurance first.
10) Neighbours helping neighbours. We go house-to-house to meet and communicate with our neighbours and support the wider community.
11) Doctors / nurses in the front lines. We have mobilised doctors and nurses to the front lines going house to house so we don’t miss anyone. They dress wounds and triage those able to the hospital for further treatment. We have been unable to secure tetanus shots to those affected on the front lines and desperately want this service.
12) Whitegoods purchases and delivery. Through our needs assessments we identify the families we can help the most and service their needs first before progressing to others. We buy dehumidifiers, fridges, washing machines, microwaves and other appliances to help ease the burden of getting these families back on their feet.
13) Mold removal crews. We mobiles and train people to remove mold the right way and then we strategically send them into the community to assist. We purchase dehumidifiers (already 30+) that get rented out to community members and rotated through houses accordingly.
14) Level 2 Electricians. We help people reconnect their houses to the grid. We also service appliances and investigate problems for each household.
15) Carpenters, Plumbers, Roofers and other trades. We mobilise tradies from a variety of disciplines to help people who need help.
16) Mechanics and Diesel Mechanics. All of the cars were submerged but some of them could be saved. We saved the ones we could and then we towed the others free of charge. We also mobilised diesel mechanics to service the fleet of bobcats, excavators and other heavy machinery.
This seems like a significant amount of work, yet there’s more to be done. We’re precisely targeting every need the community has identified.
Currently, we have 40 full-time equivalent staff simply donating their time. The workload is significant, and we’ve built systems and processes to refined each role into a well-oiled machine.
[ OUR TEAM ]
We have a team of over 40 full-time equivalent volunteers at the Hub, each with a lot of work to do. Our systems and processes have been refined each day to create a well-oiled machine.
[ OUR DASHBOARD ]
[ OUR STORIES ]
**Isolated community beyond Aults Road was identified after 5 days as running out of food, water & other essential items. A crew was mobilised to deliver these items and kayak them over the river crossing. Continued support is being provided.
[ OUR FINANCES ]
The fund originally spent money on earthmoving equipment, fuel, wheelbarrows, shovels, dehumidifiers, gurneys, generators and wet/dry vacs to aid in the immediate recovery efforts.
Since engaging GiveIT who have pledged to supply all groceries, school supplies, white goods and building renovation works - the fund has shifted its focus to trying to sustain the efforts of the hub and organise helping those in need with system & administration as well as needs analysis surveys. Because GiveIT can supply everything required at a household level, we are trying to bridge the gap between community members accessing the services of GiveIT. We want to help each person get what they need through the GiveIT system. We do this by ensureing we have completed door-to-door baseline surveys on each effected household and then logging their needs into the GiveIT system. In order to have skilled and consistent people doing this work, we have shifted our focus onto paying key people so they can keep supplying the community. We believe that helping others access the services is a key gap that needs to be filled. Nobody gets left behind.
All ongoing money into the fund will be used to financially support our volunteers so they can continue to help for another 4 - 12 weeks to (1) complete all needs assessments across the Tweed (500 completed, 1000+ remaining), (2) continue liaising with those in need and delivering white goods and other items through GiveIT and other funding sources, (3) continued dispatch of ADF and other volunteers & trades to people who need them, (4) teaching other hubs in the region our systems/processes and providing training - they have requested this support.
[ DIRECT DEBIT]
Account Name: SDBC Operations Pty Ltd
BSB: 062 580
Account Number: 1040 4779
In the first seven days of these floods, it was utter carnage. Broken cars lined the streets. Petrol stations were wiped out. Telecommunications were non-existent. There were no ATMs, banks or eftpos-only cash. Individuals, families, and entire streets were waiting for rescue, but completely inaccessible. Entire roads, missing as a result of landslides.
Right now, there is vast destruction, immense suffering, and both human and animal death. It’s difficult to convey the loss, but, there’s hope. From the mud, we will rise.
Our objective is simple: identify the needs of people and mobilise impactful resources. In a building intended to become a taproom and brewery now holds a Volunteers Hub. This epicenter of information and help is designed to rebuild the lives of our community at their doorstep. We’re not an ivory tower asking impacted people to come to us—we’re on the front lines at an individual household level to ensure no one is lost and people get adequate help. Like us, they’re everyday Australians and we’re here to support them getting back on their feet. We want each household to meet minimum standards and be lifted to the level they were before the floods, or in a more beneficial position.
With over 6,000 volunteers in less than two weeks, we’ve been able to deploy the following services:
01) Scouting missions to identify isolated families and communities in need.
02) High-risk missions delivering: food, water & generator drops to isolated communities including kayaking river crossings and hiking 5km+
03) Low-risk missions delivering: food, water & cleaning products delivery to accessible community members
04) Purchase of all essential supplies & stocks (we get no government funding and we actually supply the ADF with shovels, wheelbarrows, gurneys & water pumps). The ADF get jobs allocated to them from our Volunteers Hub every morning.
05) Purchase of “small” items that assist in recovery efforts such as: mops, squidgy-ma-jigs, disinfectant, broomes, gloves, shovels, masks, gumboots, buckets etc.
06) Purchase of “large” items that assist in recovery efforts: gas cookers, gurneys, water pumps, wheelbarrows, hoses & fittings, wet/dry vacs, jerry cans, petrol / diesel,
07) Mobilise heavy equipment such as bobcats, excavators, dump trucks to assist getting through piles of mud ridden items, clean houses and clean streets.
08) Clearing landslides & private roads. We have utilised heavy equipment to open up isolated communities through clearing landslides. The SES had no helicopter droff off points in the hill country due to terrain difficulties so it was up to us to service these communities.
09) Needs assessments. We are identifying deeper community needs though through door-to-door household level assessments - this information is used to drive our white good purchases and getting items out to the community to get them back to “business as usual”. We target servicing those people without flood insurance first.
10) Neighbours helping neighbours. We go house-to-house to meet and communicate with our neighbours and support the wider community.
11) Doctors / nurses in the front lines. We have mobilised doctors and nurses to the front lines going house to house so we don’t miss anyone. They dress wounds and triage those able to the hospital for further treatment. We have been unable to secure tetanus shots to those affected on the front lines and desperately want this service.
12) Whitegoods purchases and delivery. Through our needs assessments we identify the families we can help the most and service their needs first before progressing to others. We buy dehumidifiers, fridges, washing machines, microwaves and other appliances to help ease the burden of getting these families back on their feet.
13) Mold removal crews. We mobiles and train people to remove mold the right way and then we strategically send them into the community to assist. We purchase dehumidifiers (already 30+) that get rented out to community members and rotated through houses accordingly.
14) Level 2 Electricians. We help people reconnect their houses to the grid. We also service appliances and investigate problems for each household.
15) Carpenters, Plumbers, Roofers and other trades. We mobilise tradies from a variety of disciplines to help people who need help.
16) Mechanics and Diesel Mechanics. All of the cars were submerged but some of them could be saved. We saved the ones we could and then we towed the others free of charge. We also mobilised diesel mechanics to service the fleet of bobcats, excavators and other heavy machinery.
This seems like a significant amount of work, yet there’s more to be done. We’re precisely targeting every need the community has identified.
Currently, we have 40 full-time equivalent staff simply donating their time. The workload is significant, and we’ve built systems and processes to refined each role into a well-oiled machine.
[ OUR TEAM ]
We have a team of over 40 full-time equivalent volunteers at the Hub, each with a lot of work to do. Our systems and processes have been refined each day to create a well-oiled machine.
[ OUR DASHBOARD ]
[ OUR STORIES ]
**Isolated community beyond Aults Road was identified after 5 days as running out of food, water & other essential items. A crew was mobilised to deliver these items and kayak them over the river crossing. Continued support is being provided.
[ OUR FINANCES ]
The fund originally spent money on earthmoving equipment, fuel, wheelbarrows, shovels, dehumidifiers, gurneys, generators and wet/dry vacs to aid in the immediate recovery efforts.
Since engaging GiveIT who have pledged to supply all groceries, school supplies, white goods and building renovation works - the fund has shifted its focus to trying to sustain the efforts of the hub and organise helping those in need with system & administration as well as needs analysis surveys. Because GiveIT can supply everything required at a household level, we are trying to bridge the gap between community members accessing the services of GiveIT. We want to help each person get what they need through the GiveIT system. We do this by ensureing we have completed door-to-door baseline surveys on each effected household and then logging their needs into the GiveIT system. In order to have skilled and consistent people doing this work, we have shifted our focus onto paying key people so they can keep supplying the community. We believe that helping others access the services is a key gap that needs to be filled. Nobody gets left behind.
All ongoing money into the fund will be used to financially support our volunteers so they can continue to help for another 4 - 12 weeks to (1) complete all needs assessments across the Tweed (500 completed, 1000+ remaining), (2) continue liaising with those in need and delivering white goods and other items through GiveIT and other funding sources, (3) continued dispatch of ADF and other volunteers & trades to people who need them, (4) teaching other hubs in the region our systems/processes and providing training - they have requested this support.
[ DIRECT DEBIT]
Account Name: SDBC Operations Pty Ltd
BSB: 062 580
Account Number: 1040 4779
Organizer
Thomas Cornish
Organizer
Rowlands Creek NSW
