HELP Small Flood Affected Towns Rebuild Lives

Please help! Sally, Anne, and I (Sarah Butler) are three women from Brisbane supporting some of the worst of the worst affected families in Woodburn and Broadwater. Currently housed in the fourth temporary home in two weeks (Camp Koinonia, Evans Head), we are determined to ensure these 100-200+ residents are not forgotten!

 

We have now made three trips to the area between us and have established friendships with affected families and instrumental volunteers on the ground. Below is further information on the current state of play, what we have witnessed first-hand and factual information about some of the families we aim to help with your generous donations.

 

P.S Sorry for the lack of photos; whilst we want to share the gravity of this disaster, far and wide people are the priority when we are on the ground.

 

“Day 2 in Woodburn and Broadwater came with a lot of tears 95% of the towns have been condemned by emergency services. This means all that is salvageable is the frames of houses and the muddy, stinky block of land it stands on. The wretch of mud and dead animals is overbearing, and the fear of stumbling on a dead body is real. Part of me wished I could bottle up the stench and share it on social media just to help the rest of Australia comprehend the gravity of what these lovely people are up against. For those not lucky enough to own a house, well, they have lost everything. Particularly the elderly who had little, to begin with, on a pension and calling a caravan park home. Their upside-down cars and caravans now litter the road into Broadwater like a scene out of an apocalyptic movie.

I spent time getting to know some of the locals who have been affected as they call a campground home, the fourth home they have had in less than two weeks. Every day is hard for this community as they grapple with processing their trauma, what has been lost, and the constant threat of being moved on from their temporary home to make way for holiday renters. Those that are lucky enough to still have jobs are forced to return to work as they spend what energy they have left searching for a new home or hitching a lift to-and-from so-called “Disaster Revcovery Centres” some 44km away in order to access government grants.

Beryl and Ian are 83, have been madly in love for 10 years and lived in the park for 14. Ian jokes that Beryl chased him down in their Broadwater caravan park because she had a leaky tap before they commenced their ‘sinful’ relationship out of wedlock. They had built what they considered a lovely life together, incredibly proud of their plant and dining set collection, not to

mention their brand new $800 bed. Prior to this disaster they had never seen more than a bit of ‘water under foot’ as Ian liked to put it.

The night of the flood, they went to bed assured by authorities it was a non-event. Beryl awoke in the middle of the night, pulling up the blanket to find it soaking wet. Water was halfway up their bed and they had to wade through chest-high water to higher ground, where they clung alone for 15 hours. Beryl standing on the railing of a cabin’s verandah, Ian shivering mostly submerged. They escaped with nothing but each other, no formal identification and not a dollar to their name.

 

All the people we have met are hardworking, grounded Australians who have busted themselves to build what they had. They resist the help in fear of being greedy, selfish or labelled as a complainer, and they certainly won't ask for it. They didn’t deserve this disaster, and they certainly don't deserve the way they continue to be let down by Government. I am committed with Sally Davison and Anne Fidler to play a role in rebuilding these lives and ask you all for any assistance you can offer these lovely families and others I have met. It doesn’t need to be monetary; sharing their story is just as important, but I can assure you all generosity will be directly passed on.

 

Donations will be put towards:

 

Status on the ground as of 13 Mar 2022