NSW Bushfire relief for my uncle/partner
Donation protected
My uncle Murray Quant and his partner Alvina Hannan have lost their beautiful home and his lifes work/passion to the horrible bushfires in the past few days...
This was his beautiful little home:
This is now what's left after the horrific fires in Wandella NSW:
These are a few words I've asked Murray and Ali to write about the property:
In 1996 I purchased 40 acres of farmland that was badly degraded with the intention of rehabilitating and creating a wildlife sanctuary to then put a covenant over it to protect it for 99yrs.
I started by planting 3500 local tree stock of which about 2500 survived after rabbits attacked them, the ones that did survive grew well and formed the basis of a new forest and wildlife habitat.
As the years went by I worked on removing weeds and blackberries, encouraging native grasses and under story plants to grow and thrive, almost no cattle and horses grazed the land for 24 yrs. The main animals were a small mob of Red Neck Wallabies, a healthy population of Wombats, Echidnas, Bandicoots and Goannas and with each year more and more birds made "Eagles Ridge" their home.
2 years ago, after 13 yrs on my own, I was at the Cobargo Folk Festival having a Sunday afternoon dance and I spotted a gorgeous lady on the dance floor, we caught each others eye, so I pulled off my best Irish Jig and moved on over, she was so impressed with my dance moves, we spent the evening dancing and talking the night away.
Ali visited Eagles Ridge and fell in love with the place and showed the same passion for what I was trying to achieve on the property. Ali moved in soon after and we have been so happy to have found each other and fall in love. She created new vegetable gardens and we began to plan how to further build on the house with all of the building materials I had collected, not only for ourselves but for Ali's son to visit and our family and friends. We have just been on a holiday for the first time in many years for the both of us and arrived home to begin our building plans and could not have imagined what was about to happen 48hrs later.
On December 31st 2019 at 4.45am this all came to a devastating halt as we raced to escape a massive fire storm racing down off Peak Alone, Wandella NSW, which is part of a huge National and State Forrest area to the west of the property. The fire storm was driven by a Pyrocumulonimbus formation above a fire to our west and the power of this fire was like nothing we have ever seen. It consumed everything in its path and almost nothing survived it.
We were literally running for our lives and drove thru burning fields and our local town of Cobargo which was alight already to the safety of the coastal town of Bermagui.
We are grateful to have our lives and each other.
Eagles Ridge is now destroyed beyond recognition. We hope to be able to replant, rebuild and start again however this will be a battle as I could not afford insurance.
We wish to thank everyone who has helped us in the days that have followed and thank everyone who may donate, we cant wait to see Eagles Ridge flourish again and share our future journey with you all.
Love Murray & Ali
The following photos are what's left of it:
Absolutely nothing is salvageable it is terrifying and devastating...
These are some of the trees Murray planted many years ago... (whats left anyways) hopefully with your help we can make this beautiful place flourish again!
I'd like to thank everybody for sparing the time to read this and i just want to say that i'm a firm believer in what Murray and Ali have been doing on their property. I think if more people did what they do the world would be a better and greener place.
I know that Murray will be looking at getting a new concrete slab poured for the foundations of the shed, a new water tank so that they can have drinking water and to water the trees, a new shed so that they have a roof over their heads etc.
So please! If you are able to donate even a few dollars or whatever you can afford to give i know Murray, Ali, my family and the natural habitat around them would appreciate it from the bottom of their hearts.
This was his beautiful little home:
This is now what's left after the horrific fires in Wandella NSW:
These are a few words I've asked Murray and Ali to write about the property:
In 1996 I purchased 40 acres of farmland that was badly degraded with the intention of rehabilitating and creating a wildlife sanctuary to then put a covenant over it to protect it for 99yrs.
I started by planting 3500 local tree stock of which about 2500 survived after rabbits attacked them, the ones that did survive grew well and formed the basis of a new forest and wildlife habitat.
As the years went by I worked on removing weeds and blackberries, encouraging native grasses and under story plants to grow and thrive, almost no cattle and horses grazed the land for 24 yrs. The main animals were a small mob of Red Neck Wallabies, a healthy population of Wombats, Echidnas, Bandicoots and Goannas and with each year more and more birds made "Eagles Ridge" their home.
2 years ago, after 13 yrs on my own, I was at the Cobargo Folk Festival having a Sunday afternoon dance and I spotted a gorgeous lady on the dance floor, we caught each others eye, so I pulled off my best Irish Jig and moved on over, she was so impressed with my dance moves, we spent the evening dancing and talking the night away.
Ali visited Eagles Ridge and fell in love with the place and showed the same passion for what I was trying to achieve on the property. Ali moved in soon after and we have been so happy to have found each other and fall in love. She created new vegetable gardens and we began to plan how to further build on the house with all of the building materials I had collected, not only for ourselves but for Ali's son to visit and our family and friends. We have just been on a holiday for the first time in many years for the both of us and arrived home to begin our building plans and could not have imagined what was about to happen 48hrs later.
On December 31st 2019 at 4.45am this all came to a devastating halt as we raced to escape a massive fire storm racing down off Peak Alone, Wandella NSW, which is part of a huge National and State Forrest area to the west of the property. The fire storm was driven by a Pyrocumulonimbus formation above a fire to our west and the power of this fire was like nothing we have ever seen. It consumed everything in its path and almost nothing survived it.
We were literally running for our lives and drove thru burning fields and our local town of Cobargo which was alight already to the safety of the coastal town of Bermagui.
We are grateful to have our lives and each other.
Eagles Ridge is now destroyed beyond recognition. We hope to be able to replant, rebuild and start again however this will be a battle as I could not afford insurance.
We wish to thank everyone who has helped us in the days that have followed and thank everyone who may donate, we cant wait to see Eagles Ridge flourish again and share our future journey with you all.
Love Murray & Ali
The following photos are what's left of it:
Absolutely nothing is salvageable it is terrifying and devastating...
These are some of the trees Murray planted many years ago... (whats left anyways) hopefully with your help we can make this beautiful place flourish again!
I'd like to thank everybody for sparing the time to read this and i just want to say that i'm a firm believer in what Murray and Ali have been doing on their property. I think if more people did what they do the world would be a better and greener place.
I know that Murray will be looking at getting a new concrete slab poured for the foundations of the shed, a new water tank so that they can have drinking water and to water the trees, a new shed so that they have a roof over their heads etc.
So please! If you are able to donate even a few dollars or whatever you can afford to give i know Murray, Ali, my family and the natural habitat around them would appreciate it from the bottom of their hearts.
I will be receiving the donations and then processing them onto Murray personally or ordering specific things for him.
With many thanks and kind wishes, Edward Quant.
Organizer
Ed Quant
Organizer
St Leonards NSW
