Help Shaun Rebuild After Burringbar Landslide

El Rai Delicia is organising this fundraiser for our dear lifelong friend Shaun Appleby.

 

Beloved community and friends,

 

We need your help and support. On the night of 28th February, during the current flooding in the Northern Rivers, our dear friend Shaun and his adult son Ethan had the horrifying experience of numerous successive landslides.  The biggest one dumped tons of mud into their home in Upper Burringbar, totally buried one car, moved the Hilux 4WD 5 m and left it dangling, buried the shed and a lifetime's worth of tools, chainsaws and brushcutters, sent the water tank down the roaring creek, ripped out the electricity poles and sent them down the landslide, and washed away the causeway access to the property! What a horrific night!

 

After months of rain followed by at least 700 mm of rain in 24 hours, the previously gentle forest and hillside that had been there for hundreds of years broke loose, forcing Shaun and Ethan, trapped on the property by roaring creeks, to flee for their lives, not knowing which way to run. As soil, rocks and mature trees crashed down the hillside directly onto the central section of their property and the house, they fled the house, and slept outside in the rain, as it definitely seemed to be the safest option! They are deeply grateful to be alive and physically uninjured! It could so easily have been different!

 

 

 

In Shaun’s words…

 

"It will stay with me forever the roar of the thousands of tons of earth, rock and trees rushing down the hill, some striking our home, as we huddled in the rain below, trapped in darkness by rising waters, waiting to know whether our house would collapse above us and hoping we would survive the night. While it is devastating to experience such a catastrophic change in one night, I am profoundly grateful that my son and I are still alive."

 

Shaun has coped with this massive change in circumstances amazingly well and keeps refocusing back to the massive cleanup and rebuilding process ahead. He has been a loving and kind man and a dedicated single dad for the last twenty-two years.

 

 

He has spent the last twenty years planting hundreds of rainforest trees along the banks of small creeks surrounding his property as a small contribution to mitigating climate change. He has always lived a simple and humble life and simply wants the opportunity to continue to stay on his property and rebuild, which has many challenges as a pensioner!

 

 

Sadly, much of the creekside rainforest planted over these years was destroyed along with other native trees as the creeks were scoured by roaring torrents and the hillside itself collapsed.

 

We are asking our friends, family, and community to contribute to Shaun rebuilding his life. As the cost of insurance was prohibitive, Shaun has no insurance, and simply wants to stay living on his property.  The landslide still blocks access to the house, so in the meantime, fixing up the shed so it provides temporary accommodation makes sense. While the magnitude of the work sometimes seems overwhelming, Shaun is robust and deeply committed to staying on his rainforest property. He would be grateful and content living a modest life on his property.  The alternative of trying to enter the non-existant rental market seems more daunting.

 

 

Your contribution will cover:

 

Repair the causeway across Ophir Glen Creek to re-establish access $10K

Site geotechnical survey for safety $2K

Excavation to remove debris from essential sections of the property $73K

Re-establish tank and water system $6K

 

To create a new home from the existing shed:

Rescue the ute with an excavator or replace $8K

 

Total $165K

 

Shaun, I want to acknowledge you for staying by yourself on your property for those first three fateful days after the landslide, with tons of mud in the house, no water, no power, nor communications, where you took possibly too many risks trying to save what was left of your beloved rainforest home of twenty-four years while eating only oatmeal and SAO biscuits. You are a very courageous and talented man and you can be very proud of all that you did!

 

Shaun’s life as a fit and capable pensioner has just dramatically changed with a very new trajectory ahead. This fund will assist Shaun to stay in his beloved rainforest retreat of twenty-four years, to rebuild, and continue to do the rainforest regeneration work that he loves, with all the helpful climate change mitigation this brings. Shaun wants to build a modest, wholesome future and have a property to pass on to his son.

 

It's so beautiful that you have found some of your recently planted baby rainforest trees unharmed and sprouting inches above the earth! New shoots! New life!

 

 

All contributions are welcome and please feel free to like and share with friends.

 

We are so deeply grateful to the Burringbar RFS, SES, and all volunteer rescue workers and helpers who have been so dedicated to helping all of those in real need at this time. The sense of community fills a space of grief that would otherwise seem perhaps overwhelming.

 

We understand how huge this has been for so many thousands of Northern Rivers people. Our love and prayers are with everyone affected by these devastating events and we pray for the well-being of everyone affected by the floods and landslides.

 

With all our love and gratitude,

 

El Rai Delicia for Shaun