Toodyay

SALUTING TOODYAY COMMUNITY

Since the devastation of the December 29th bushfire which raged through the southern farmland and the Majestic Heights area of Toodyay, those affected by the fires along with the Bushfire Recovery team, have forged ahead to re-build in every manner. 

Day one saw the establishment of a structure to deal with the reponse phase of a Recovery program.  This was done by FESA (Fire Emergency Services Authority) by appointing Charlie Wroth as the Recovery Co-Ordinator and Bob Jackson as the Executive Officer.  Daily Information Meetings in the Memorial Hall for the bushfire survivors commenced which were chaired by Charlie Wroth the Bushfire Recovery Co-Ordinator and usually went for an hour and half.  It also provided the survivors with a venue to ask questions, discuss problems they were encountering and generally a resolution was determined or the Recovery Team would then chase the information down to have ready for the following day. These meetings became an invaluable point at which survivors could tap into the various programs of assistance and of course from where Recovery could organise everything which was required to be done.

Daily Recovery Committee Meetings followed the Information meetings and included representatives from many various emergency management bodies and lifeline services such as DCP, Red Cross, Salvation Army .  An inordinant amount of minute taking was required, followed by the minutes being typed up in readiness for the Shire to place on their website.  This alone was hours of work daily.

Charlie Wroth immediately organised a Recovery Team desk which was in attendance at the Memorial Hall every day for the first two months and who remain available for assistance at every Recovery Information meeting.  An enormous THANKYOU to Robbie Devlin, Nuala Ennis, Alison Wroth, Mark and Marilyn d'Alton and Jenny Somers.   TELSTRA donated temporary use of phones for all the services desks for the first three months until a Recovery donated office was well established to then take all the flow on enquiries.  

On this note, a HUGE THANKS to OFFICEWORKS of MIDLAND!!!   What extroadinary people you are - Managers, Brent and Maree just thought of everything that would be required to get a Recovery office going and personally drove up to Toodyay to deliver it all and set it up.

DCP arrived into the Hall the night of the fire, organising people into accomodation once they were evacuated from their homes and then stayed to assist in numberable ways for the next few months.  The Red Cross and Salvation Army followed closely after and likewise remained to assist.

First and foremost the emphasis was on re-establishing services to properties - power and phones, disconnecting piping from tanks to homes in order to wash roofs of any retardants dropped from the Helitax , emptying tanks and washing the internal structure of the tanks before re-connecting all piping in order to once again harvest the rainwater....... once it came, ....which was a while, .... nearly five months in fact, so in the meantime, each property was entitled to have 92,000 litres of potable water delivered free of charge from the local Shire. A massive undertaking of resources.

The topography of the area affected by the fires is difficult country, steep, long and narrow gullies, a vast amount of burnt out trees and a huge amount of rocks and boulders.  All this had to be negotiated in order to have services re-instated.  In many instances this has meant that posts cannot be dug to string lines across, but rather the lines are laid on top of the rocky earth.  Often vehicles could not access this country so it was done by foot.  Enormous challenges!  This was all overseen and directed by the very able Recovery Co-Ordinator, Charlie Wroth.

From the second night, Bob Jackson of the Recovery Team was organising generators and extension leads to be delivered from Coates Hire, Midland (Thankyou Coates for the great discounts and assistance at the end of the phone whenever we needed it!) .....for the fire affected properties where homes still stood but had lost power. On the third afternoon and every day for two weeks afterwards, generators were being delivered to various properties by volunteers -  thankyou to Bruce Prior, John Adam, Carl Pederson, Hughie Jackson and Lionel Jackson AND the electricians who donated their services to ensure the safe connection to the houses. 

Bob Jackson was on the phone as early as 4.30am almost daily throughout these first weeks tracking down any contact for whatever was required.  Many a Manager received an early awakening with a request from the other end for what was needed to assist the response phase of recovery and most were only too willing to take part and help.

Remember, this was early January and many companies had closed for the Christmas & New Year holiday period.  In fact Toodyay Shire offices were closed for 4 weeks for the same reason which left a great deal to be organised by the Recovery Team during the first month. 

Likewise Charlie Wroth was also up and running by 5am daily to set the days activities into motion and both men worked long hours into the evenings in order to complete the day's programme and plan for the next.  As well, there were numerous meetings every day, often lasting for 2 or more hours, many with government departments - all had to be minuted, pertinent information to go to survivors not missed, many interviews with the media to keep the disaster at the forefront of the news as this was key to having success with financial donations - sleep was not a factor of consideration for Charlie and Bob!  THANKYOU GUYS!

Demolition and clean ups of the properties started in earnest around week three after the fire.  Once a demolition order was obtained by owners, the excavators, front end loaders, skid steers,  skip bins, tip trucks moved in to clear the debris.  Bob Somers and The Wonderful Geoff were amazing! Working from dawn to nightfall every day in intense summer heat, co-ordinating this huge undertaking in often difficult terrain, frequently 40+ C heat, dealing with building remains leaning dangerously, dust, dust and more dust and endless ash - this was a co-ordination of an operation to behold!  We were all in AWE of the GREAT JOB DONE!  THANKS!

Next came the tree clean ups - The Shire organised with Specialised Tree Services to have every dangerous road side tree felled and all properties with dangerous trees in driveways or leaning over the still standing homes were removed. This was funded by WANDRRA - the West Australian Natural Disaster Relief Authority.

For those with overwhelming numbers of large trees partly burnt out, still burning, falling or fallen, there was enormous assistance from a number of truly wonderful volunteers - the day release prisoners from Woorooloo Prison were exceptional and worked tirelessly on so many properties which enabled people to return to their homes.  This was co-ordinated at a local level by Robbie Devlin - a marvellous job!  There were other volunteers from Bunbury, Perth, Albany along with locals who turned up with chainsaws, a strong will and plenty of energy and spirit to tackle the heavy task ahead of them .......... THANKYOU ALL! 

Establishment of receival centres for donations were determined by the Recovery Committee. 

Foodstuffs, water and general household goods were set up on the stage of the Memorial Hall and ably run by Rosemary Madacsi and her team of volunteers for three months.  Rosemary proved to be a 'master of the list' and had sourced many suppliers for donations and at the touch of her computer could come up with every last detail of what came in and went out of the stage grocery store known as 'Hallmart', right down to a daily stocktake and  re-ordering system!

On the first night of the fire, local lady, Marlene Andrijich set up the kitchen in the Memorial Hall to provide meals for any survivors and volunteers.  Marlene ran this kitchen for long hours every day for the following three months, providing lunches, dinners and refreshments for all the meetings.  Marlene and her team of around 30 volunteers were enormously appreciated !

The next service established was by Melanie Pree and John Mitchinson in the Pavillion at the Sports Ground.  Clothes were arriving into Toodyay non stop and within weeks it was determined that Toodyay had enough to clothe ten towns!!  The generousity of folk from far and wide was inspiring.  Furniture too began to arrive so another adjacent area was opened up and this was wonderful for the survivors start to accumulate some contents again toward some basic human comfort.  Soon the busy ladies of the local Op Shop arrived to help Melanie and John and together they were kept very busy for around 4 months.  Extreme physical work done in extremely hot conditions under the corrugated iron roof within the corrugated iron shed in one of the hottest summers on record!!!!!!  Toodyay salutes you all and THANKS YOU!

A very big THANKS! goes out to KEYS BROS. REMOVALS of Cannington and THE MOVING MAN REMOVALS of Mundaring.  Both companies most generously donated the services of men, trucks, fuel and time to pick up donated furniture around Perth, deliver to Toodyay, remove 'taken' furniture from the Pavillion to storage and as well, to deliver furniture where they could to individuals who had their own storage.  This was an enormous donation. 

Another important centre was out at the Racecourse where livestock fodder was stored and manned / loaded onto utes and trucks for those from burnt properties, for two months by the undaunted Craig Stuart.  THANKYOU!  

Alex Burt of Westpac, Northam, was instrumental in organising quality hay to come into Toodyay by the truckload on regular delivery.  Through Alex's contacts it was donated from all over by many a caring farmer.  THANKYOU ALEX, you proved to be a great friend to many in Toodyay!  Many of the fire affected people had livestock and of course, even if a home still stood, the grounds were now cinder and any stored fodder was gone.  It was such a sad sight to see horses, cattle and sheep on returning to their paddocks having no grass to graze on.

Further to this support, Chris Maroni and Sue Eldridge were key to caring for all the small animals and native animals.  Chris would go out twice a day to put food out for any missing pets on burnt properties, calling their names in the hope that they would appear, arranging donated pet food for pick up at the Racecourse while Sue sought the correct food for the native animals.  Most kangaroos fled to safety but returned to their 'home' territory and of course every blade of grass was gone so this specific Roo Food was vital.  Chris also donated her time and care in all matters of horsemanship and this was an invaluable help to many, in many ways, with her care for survivors horses.

Our wonderful Rangers, Alan Knapp and Paul Postma also played a vital role in every aspect of the Recovery Response and had the dreadful responsibility of having to deal with all the animals, livestock, pets or native animals, which did not survive or were so badly injured they had to be put down.  Thankyou Alan and Paul for the wonderful caring service to our community!  Apart from dealing with a myriad of issues on the fireground, you dealt with the 'hard stuff' that none of us would want to have to face.

Water!  Imagine the lack of supply of water to your own property! We could not survive and this came donated by pallets in truck loads regularly.  This was organised and donated by the Water Corp. and Michael Hutt from the Water Corp. was truly efficient in making sure this water was here before it was needed.

Jim Chown, MLC, Member for the Agricultural Region of WA, sought out an anonymous donor of $,200,000.00 of bottled water.  Jim accompanied the truck which delivered the water into Toodyay and Jim, together with, Charlie Wroth and Bob Jackson unloaded early in the morning before a Saturday Information meeting!  They did arrive at the meeting a bit grubby and more tired than usual!