Help the Belcher family business - Cyclone Jasper

Hi my name is Jo, I am a close friend of the Belcher family who own, run and live at 'Bruce Belcher's Daintree River Cruises' https://www.daintreerivercruises.com.au/. This account is linked directly to the family to assist with the immediate costs such as arborists to remove fallen trees, paying wages for staff and others to help with the clean up, as well as replacement of all key operational infrastructure, while the business is unable to make any income - potentially for a number of months. Costs to restore operational capacity are likely to be in the hundreds of thousands.

Daintree was one of the worst impacted areas of the Category 2 cyclone that crossed the QLD coast at Wujal Wujal on Wednesday 13th December 2023. Winds from the cyclone pummelled the small township of Daintree for 15 hours causing significant damage to the Belcher's reception area and accessway to the pontoon where guests board the cruise boat. Their business and homes are located alongside the Daintree River, within rainforest vegetation comprised of many large tall trees, some of which fell onto the shop and accessway. This initial damage was itself devastating however it pales in comparison to the damage caused by the massive rainfall event that followed. Over 1000mm of rain fell in the Daintree on Sunday and Monday 17th and 18th December 2023 FIVE DAYS after the cyclone hit and many North Queenslanders believed that the worst was over. Daintree has not had any power supply, internet or phone coverage since the cyclone and there was a narrow window of access between Daintree and Mossman via road between when the cyclone flooding subsided and the rainfall event cut roads again.

Griffith Belcher, son and worker of Bruce and Zona Belcher boarded their newest vessel and key business asset on Tuesday night with the sole aim of protecting the boat through the cyclone as the custom made trailer was not ready yet and they could not remove the boat from the river and strap it to the trailer as they had done with the other boats. Griff remained on the boat for 7 days and 7 nights sleeping in a swag and consuming the few days of supplies he took, unable to disembark following the flooding, and unable to protect his house in any way from the rainfall event to come.

Griff sent a video the night he boarded their new boat, before the cyclone hit. Griff reported that he was certain he was going to die at 3 different times the following night when the full force of Jasper hit. Little did he know the worst was yet to come.

Abbey Hastie (nee Belcher) sent urgent messages through to her parents, brother, and his partner Sharna who was alone in their house next to the river cruise business on Sunday night telling them that there was a LOT of rain heading their way. With phone signal still down, the messages didn't get through. Sharna woke to their pet cat meowing around 3am that night in the pitch black with no electricity or phone signal, she got out of bed and found herself standing in around 1 meter deep water through the house. Sharna grabbed their pet cat and 70kg German Shepherd dog and waded to the nearest tour boat strapped on to a trailer finding some kind of super human strength to lift their dog into the boat. Sharna phoned emergency services at 4am begging for help but was told that she was unable to be rescued. She sheltered in the boat with the cat and dog, terrified in the pouring rain and complete darkness for hours before Zona swam across to her in 1.5m deep water at 5.30am and called for family to come get them in the tinny. Griff and Sharna have lost everything in their house, all their furniture, clothing, electrics, everything.

Next door at Bruce and Zona's house the water flooded the downstairs accommodation and storage area. Pumps, business equipment, outboard motors for the boats, mowers, vehicles, all destroyed. The reception area next to their house which was full of stock such as souvenirs, food and beverages, cash register, computers, shop fit out etc. has been completely flooded and destroyed. Trees have fallen across the accesses to the pontoon and damaged the bridge that gives access for passengers to board the boats. Replacement of this bridge alone is likely to cost $200,000 or more.

The financial assistance being offered by government will of course be applied for however the amounts available that they are eligible to apply for just do not even begin to make a dent in replacing what has been lost.

Although they have insurance for some things, some items were unable to be insured. The initial and immediate costs that we are hoping to assist them with are as follows:

1. Arborists to remove fallen trees from the shop, sheds and accessway (estimated $5,000)

2. Buy immediate supplies including food, cleaning products, water, ice, medical supplies etc. (estimated $2000 incl transport costs from nearest major town)

3. Repair / replace equipment such as ride on mower, power tools, fridges and other equipment - all uninsured (costs unknown until assessments can be completed but likely to be in excess of $20,000 of uninsured items)

Please help if you can, every small bit helps. Being so remote it is difficult to source trades and contractors to work in this area in the best of times let alone when access is difficult and road conditions poor, and surrounding larger towns are also using all available trades. The costs are conservative estimates of only the uninsured losses with total losses likely to be many hundreds of thousand and insurance claims / disaster assistance claims still to be commenced.

The photos show the phenomenal efforts of local residents who have lost everything themselves but are still volunteering to clean up mud and other properties.