|
THIS WEEK
Marysville visit with RC Alexandra
What a great trip! The bus arrived late to rescue the forty-something Balwyn Rotarians and partners from the airconditioning of the golf club lounge and then it was off down the highway to Narbethong and Marysville. Spirits were high in spite of the struggling a/c on the bus and the sauna-like conditions. Don’t know whether the supply came from the front of the bus or whether those in the back seat were just naturally bolshie but there were the odd calls for “water, please, just a drop!”
As the bus struggled its way up the Black Spur road, we started to see some of the effects of the fires. At one point the bush to the right had been scorched at such high temperatures many of the eucalypts had been totally killed, while others struggled for life through their “feathery” epicormic buds. Most eucalypts (with the notable exception of e regnans Mountain Ash) thrive after exposure to “normal” fires but the firestorms that raged through the area on Black Saturday were so hot that many will not recover.
At Narbethong Pub we were joined by three Alexandra Rotarians who took us on a tour from Narbethong to Marysville and around the Gallipoli Park area where many of the Marysville survivors gathered for fragile safety as the wind changed and brought the fire roaring back through the town, trapping and killing many of the town’s population as it burned through vegetation, houses, shops, hotels and guesthouses. We saw the village of neatly arranged portable buildings that house the Marysville residents who lost their homes. It is built on the site of a church / school camp and we were already driving through it in our bus before we started to feel a touch uncomfortable about looking into people’s homes as “tourists”. We hoped they’d forgive our intrusion drove on to Gallipoli Park where we saw the barbecue area rebuilt with Rotary funds and enormous amounts of donated time and materials.
The town is struggling to survive and our guides offered the opinion that economic survival will depend on the re-establishment of some of the hotel and resort accommodation which formerly supported the town. To date there have been no major commitments. It is difficult for governments to take on an investment role of this nature and we can only hope that the involvement of Rotary in the process might assist in the private and company investment that is needed in the near future if the town is to be rebuilt.
One of our guides was a CFA volunteer on duty at Marysville during the fires. His team lost one of their smaller tankers destroyed and they rescued the crew into the larger tanker and made their way through dense smoke and fallen trees, ending up at Gallipoli Park where the fire refugees were sheltering. During the whole time, their radio and phone communications were intermittent and instructions contradictory. We gained a sense of how difficult their role must have been that day and how terrifying the speed the intensity of the fire must have been.
Our bus returned us to the Black Spur Hotel where we joined the rest of the Rotary Club of Alexandra for their meeting. The welcome was warm and we all sat spread around the tables with the Alexandra people. Their President John Bassett formally welcomed us and introduced our spokesman Trevor Penry, who explained that he and Carol had previously owned a farm in the district and had close ties with many of the Alexandra Rotarians. Trevor explained how the personal connections with Alexandra Rotarian Maurie Pawsey, brother of Balwyn PP Ian Pawsey had given our club a unique opportunity to understand how the Alexandra club was assisting, right from day one and where we might offer support. Trevor then presented a cheque for $10,000, our contribution to the reconstruction of the large barbecue shelter/rotunda in Gallipoli Park. The Alexandra Rotarians had identified this as a priority activity centre to provide a focus for the town in the absence of the previously familiar gathering places. Brian Stevenson, the treasurer of their Fire Reconstruction Committee gave us a summary of the applications of the funds we had provided since last February and our Bob Batrouney paid credit to Trevor Penry for his dogged persistence in getting the funding on time to where it could be used so effectively by our sister club.
We then saw an extensive collection of projected slides of the fire and its aftermath, in particular highlighting the work done by our Alexandra friends. Rotary is often at the coalface as a first-responder when disasters strike communities and it was obvious to us that the Rotary Club of Alexandra had done a wonderful job in both the early days and ongoing into the reconstruction activities. In particular, our $10,000 support for the Alexandra art Show was acknowledged as an important step in ensuring the survival of a community activity that was under threat at the time. I happened to be sitting near Brian Stevenson and he was emotional in his thanks for the support we’d been able to offer, particularly for the Art Show. Mike R-W asked him how much the art show had made and Brian answered $16,000. Mike observed that this was a great return on the $10K “investment” (quite apart from the priceless value of maintaining a community activity in disastrous circumstances) and that the $16K had then been able to be re-used for other community relief and reconstruction activities. Anthea Rutter is putting together a procedure for us to evaluate the “bang-for-the-buck” that our grants are able to produce. The grant for the art show will be wonderful case study to help us understand how important it is that our grants are used as effectively as possible.
The Black Spur Pub proved itself a great “oasis” and John Barrett explained how generous the owners had been in the aftermath of the fires, providing free accommodation for relief workers and people who had lost their homes. He encouraged us to come and stay overnight and sample some of the excellent food in their restaurant. Indeed, we’d enjoyed a great meal. As we were farewelled by our friends, old and new, many observed that this should be the start of a deeper association between our two clubs. Given the work they have ahead of them and the contacts we share, that sounds like a pretty sensible idea.
David Harris
|
