In April, the Rotary Club of Laverton Point Cook held an informational evening to discuss the ongoing and substantial need for relief effort in the areas affected by the bushfires on Black Saturday.  Although much time has passed since that time, the need is still great. 

A disaster of this magnitude creates an immediate welling up of sympathy and assistance.  As time passes though, the initial impact fades and external support rapidly diminishes while trauma and suffering persist.  It is now increasingly difficult to attract volunteers to continue to assist in the bushfire affected areas of Victoria.  Rotary has an established Bushfire Recovery fund which is being utilised, but it must be emphasised that money is not the only requirement.  There is still considerable need for volunteers. 

As a result of this informational night a committee was set up consisting of not only Rotarians but the community at large including representatives of the Point Cook CFA.  This committee was extremely successful in attracting a total of 75 volunteers to travel to Kinglake for a day of assistance to the community. 

Tasks undertaken included:

• Chain sawing felled trees
• Splitting logs for firewood
• Performing gardening duties
• Cleaning houses
• Doing laundry

We utilised the services of Global Care to assign tasks and they expressed their gratitude at the end of the day with a wonderful speech indicating the need for ongoing support.

To that end, the committee made the day a success, and will be sharing its lessons with other community groups to get more volunteers to the region.

Chris Woods Rotary Club of Laverton Point Cook

Read Next week's bushfire update

One of the teams

Wood splitting

Ready for action