47 Gippsland Storm Special Feature

The Gippsland Storm

It was clear there was something brewing. A significant event, heavy rain, destructive winds. But knowing just where in Gippsland would feel the brutal force isn’t an exact science. So, there were warnings - calls to prepare ahead of an east coast low.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned that 19 catchments could be impacted with up to 200mm of rain expected to fall on June 9 and 10.

Flood watches and severe weather warnings were issued. What would unfold was the busiest 24-hours in Victoria State Emergency Service history across the state. Two people killed in Victoria, tens of thousands left without power.

AN UNPRECEDENTED EVENT

GIPPSLAND BATTERED BY WILD JUNE STORM

Words & Photos by Anita Butterworth

Gippsland Immigration Park Morwell

Fortuna 60 Soccer Club Morwell

The Gippsland Storm

It was clear there was something brewing. A significant event, heavy rain, destructive winds. But knowing just where in Gippsland would feel the brutal force isn’t an exact science. So, there were warnings - calls to prepare ahead of an east coast low.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned that 19 catchments could be impacted with up to 200mm of rain expected to fall on June 9 and 10. Flood watches and severe weather warnings were issued. What would unfold was the busiest 24-hours in Victoria State Emergency Service history across the state. Two people killed in Victoria, tens of thousands left without power.

“The issue that we have is that when we get events like that, we don’t know exactly where they’re going to hit,” explained SES Assistant Chief Officer Regional Manager East Region (Gippsland) Anthony McLean.

“If they hit, for example in one part of Gippsland it will have a different effect than another part of Gippsland. That’s the same anywhere really. So, Traralgon, you have 288mm of rain above you, coming down into catchments at Traralgon, that’s definitely going to impact. So yes, we knew that there were significant amounts of rain forecast. But we didn’t know where it was going to hit. And the rain event was predicted to be between east and central Gippsland, but it actually moved to more central west Gippsland and into the Dandenongs.”

VICSES Gippsland Units received 1185 requests for assistance, including 57 rescues and 47 flooded homes. East Region volunteers dedicated more than 17,000 hours over five days.

“I’ve heard it described by hydrologists as a one in 50-year event, so that’s the significance of it. And there were areas such as Churchill where I live that were cut off, and there’s no catchments for want of a better word that would affect that. It wasn’t a catchment situation, it was just heavy rain having nowhere else to go, until time took it and absorbed it into the ground.

“There was a number of facets to it and we’re still seeing that with the recovery process. For example, we had trees down, we had issues with getting AusNet Services access to those trees that were down because of the water. One event compounded another.

“Community members didn’t expect there to be such heavy rain, so they went to work, and it happened at the wrong time for people anyway because you’re waking up going to work thinking everything’s going to be ok and you get stuck in floodwater. Our message that people shouldn’t drive in floodwater is a strong one, but these people were caught by surprise, they’d never normally drive in floodwater.

“It was 15 minutes of torrential rain. It virtually took fifteen minutes to go from minor to major flood within Traralgon Creek.”

The damage was widespread – impacting five of Gippsland’s six municipalities. The Victorian government declared a state energy emergency after flooding caused cracking at Yallourn power station’s Morwell River Diversion wall.

While Walhalla woke to destruction near the Long Tunnel Extended Mine and areas neighbouring the township’s creek.

“We had about 200mm of rain in a very short period of time,” explained Mine Manager Geoff Anderson. “We had a landslide behind our carpark. The landslide wiped out part of one of our buildings and the retaining wall. It washed mud into the opening of the mine, and it created a lot of mud and rubble all over the place. There was no damage in the mine itself, which was fortunate. Just a matter of clearing the rubbish that got washed in.”

Waterhole Creek Morwell

Morwell Flooding

Morwell Crinigan Road Flooding

Gippsland Immigration Park Morwell

Waterhole Creek Morwell Gippsland Immigration Park Morwell

Kernot Hall Lake Morwell

AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE ON THE GROUND

With more than 700 trees down, almost 100 buildings damaged, and dozens of people displaced, it was evident the region needed as much help as it could muster. So, the Australian Defence Force responded to a state government call for assistance.

120 ADF personnel from Victorian-based Navy, Air Force and Army, including combat engineers from the 4th Brigade’s 22nd Engineer Regiment, were deployed within 24 hours of the request.

“We work as part of a team as support role, and all of the communities showed great resilience,” said Victorian-based Joint Task Group 629.2 Commander Brigadier Matt Burr.

The ADF provided engineering and logistics support, cleared roads, reduced and felled trees, sandbagged and conducted welfare checks across a wide geographic area. And further west in the Dandenong Ranges they assisted partner agencies in the home delivery of almost 200 power generators and auxiliary equipment.

The Gippsland Storm

“To work alongside those partner agencies that were out there – I’ve got to highlight the great work that they have been doing for an extended period of time in those communities and the significant efforts they had already put in when we arrived. And we were really proud to be standing shoulder to shoulder with those agencies in support of the community.

“There’s a lot of community spirit, neighbours helped neighbours and the local volunteers, the SES the CFA and a whole range of other state agencies and emergency responders that are always there first. We’re just a part of that team. Generally, wherever we deploy domestically, we’re from those communities.

“We’re proud to support any Australians that are in need and we’re ready to respond to domestic disasters when we are called. Many of our people are locally-based Army Reservists, and if not reservists, they are full-time personnel who are predominantly from Victoria. So, we’re proud to support communities in their time of need and we’re always warmly welcomed.” It’s a sentiment echoed by the SES’s Anthony McLean. Having only been in the role for six months, he said he’s in awe of the local community spirit and the dedication of its agencies.

“Maybe it’s because of the bushfires and other events in the past, but these communities are very resilient anyway. So, a lot of people probably didn’t report until they had to because they didn’t want to both the emergency services. You know, that’s our job, it’s crazy not to bother us, but they’re really decent people that don’t want to bother us. The resilience I’ve seen straight away firsthand is incredible.”

While the clean-up and rehabilitation of the region continues several weeks later, the SES is turning its attention to preparing for another busy spring season. “We know that there’s going to be very heavy spring rains and that’s been predicted by the BOM as well, so we need to prepare and plan for future events as well.”

FLOOD WATERS SWAMP ROLLER DERBY FIELD OF DREAMS

Words & Photos by Anita Butterworth

Finding a permanent home was a tough slog for Gippsland Ranges Roller Derby. But after the better part of a decade, the all gender, not-for-profit club set down roots in Traralgon – transforming a dilapidated sheep shed into a roller derby haven.

Then Covid hit, closing the facility for a year. And just to prove that 2020 wasn’t the worse the universe had in store, in June this year floodwaters tore through the renovated shed, leaving in its wake utter destruction.

By the time the club was warned on the morning of June 10 that a flood may be on its way, it was already too late. “One of our members went down to have a look and the water was already a metre high across the entire rec reserve,” explained Gippsland Ranges Roller Derby president Bodye Darvill.

“It was pouring in through the culverts, the river actually winds around and some of the little feeders for the river are in the rec reserve. So, when the river rose it rose four metres in 45 minutes or something ridiculous like that. It was just incredibly fast and far higher than it has been in the last 30 or 40 years. There was nothing we could do.”

The heartbreak was compounded by just how difficult it had been for the club to find a facility in the first place.

“There’s a real hesitance from venue owners to let roller derby occur in their space because there’s a perception that the skates and the protective equipment will damage the floors. So, we hunted for about seven years as a club, checking out 30, 40 venues trying to find somewhere that would let us train. And finally we connected up with the Traralgon and District Agricultural Society at the Traralgon Recreation Reserve and they were willing to let us use one of their old, very dilapidated sheep and chook sheds from the Traralgon Show.

“It was full of chook pens, it had chook poo over the floor, and just accumulated things from shows over the years.”

Gippsland Ranges wanted to repay the Ag Society’s generosity by creating a facility beyond what anyone could have imagined. And they succeeded.

Three years of hard work and $150,000 in grants and fundraising later, the shed was unrecognisable. Gone was the musty smell of farm animals and possum urine-stained walls. In its place, a fit for purpose roller derby facility attracting players from three Gippsland municipalities.

But it wasn’t just a sporting club. It provided an outlet for mums, with a child-safe space and Skate Fit program. The club championed several community causes, including cancer screening awareness, LGBQTIA+ equality advocacy and hosted Australia's first Roller Derby Pride Cup and the inaugural Gippsland Pride Gala. The club grew from just 15 members to 60 during 2019.

But the bubble was about to burst. “In the irony that is Covid, we did our launch, opening our doors to our brand new, beautiful, finished shed in February 2020, and about six weeks later in March 2020, we shut down for the rest of the year.”

After navigating the pandemic for a year, the club was seeing positive signs of returning to some form of normality. Until the June flood.

“It was shock and disbelief. And then when we started to process it and think about what this meant it was just this feeling of devastation. It was like stages of grief and of being upset. You have the first stage where we knew that it was flooded. And then when the floodwaters receded, there was the next kick in the guts when you walk inside and there’s thick, gloopy mud over the entire floor.”

The impact of just a few hours at the mercy of floodwaters was immense. One member alone had $3500 worth of personal gear destroyed. The club’s skate library was inundated. It was filled with 100 pairs of skates purchased through fundraising and grants. The skates and gear allowed anyone to try out the sport without needing to fork out for hundreds of dollars’ worth of gear - and $20,000 of it was wiped out.

The brand-new padded walls were completely sodden, along with the floor. “Then we find out that the water is category three blackwater, which is sewerage contaminants and chemical runoff contaminants. So, everything the water’s touched that’s permeable has to be destroyed. It was just these layers of getting worse and worse and worse.”

The club members have been floating from facility to facility since the flood. While their Traralgon facility has been cleared of debris and mud by members and volunteers, it’s still a long way from being game ready, with the walls and toilets needing to be stripped and replaced.

The silver lining to the destructive storm was the huge amount of support the club received. It was a clear reflection of the hundreds of volunteer hours members had donated to community organisations over the past decade. Other sporting clubs – many that were still cleaning their own facilities, chipped in on the clean-up.

From crowdfunding to an online telethon, the club has managed to claw back a small portion of what it needs to get back to playing. But Bodye estimates they’ll need at least $150,000 to get back to skating.

“It’s just a waiting game really with what’s going to happen next.”

Donations to Gippsland Ranges Roller Derby’s rebuild can be made via: www.gofundme.com/f/gippsland-ranges-roller-derby-flood-relief

The Gippsland Storms

SES Rescue volunteers begin the arduous job of clearing storm damage. “There’s a lot of community spirit, neighbours helped neighbours and the local volunteers, the SES the CFA and a whole range of other state agencies and emergency responders that are always there first."

‘WE WERE TRAPPED’

MIRBOO EAST FAMILY’S HARROWING ORDEAL

Words & Photos by Anita Butterworth

Stranded at their Mirboo East farm with no water, no food, no electricity and no way of communicating with the outside world, Brenton and Kat Gration had copped the sting of the June storm event.

They thought the storm would just be like any other. Perhaps a couple of trees down. Maybe a damaged fence or two. They never imagined that’d be trapped with their three children for five days, forced to drink water out of their horse trough.

Kat’s weather app had issued a severe storm warning on June 8. “We thought we’ll have a couple of trees down across the driveway, we’ll cut them off in the morning and everything will be fine. But we were not ready for what was coming and how severe it was.”

On June 9, just before Kat left home to pick up her kids from school in Leongatha, the power flickered out. It was the first inkling of the brewing storm’s strength. She headed out for the school pick up, leaving a recovering Brenton at home. He’d been injured the day before, moving pregnant cows from their property to the neighbour’s in anticipation of the storm.

“I got halfway to picking the kids up from school and a tree came crashing down onto the powerlines right in front of me,” Kat said. “I had to get the kids and there was no other way to get to the school, so I drove under the powerlines and went and got the kids from school.

“On the way back from school is when the rain and everything hit, and we got back to where the powerlines were down, and the police were there blocking the roads. The tree had caught fire on the powerlines, and it just blocked off the road completely and there were trucks stuck there, milk tankers, log trucks. The trucks couldn’t turn around, but the cars were turning around.

“They said it’s a six or seven hour wait to get this tree off the powerlines and so I tried to go down a dirt road. I came halfway down the first road and there was a tree down across the track and it was massive. There was no way I could lift it or move it by myself. So, I did another U turn and started heading back up the hill and another tree had come down behind us, after we’d driven through so my son and I had to get out in the pouring rain and drag this tree off the track to get through.”

Kat’s three children, aged five, eight and nine, grew increasingly worried, as Kat tried to find a way home. “We tried a third road, and that was already flooded so I called my husband and said there’s no other way to get through. He said your best way is to go through the floodwaters and go all the way to Boolarra and then come all the way back up the other road.

“So, it ended up taking two hours and forty minutes to get home. I was starting to panic. We’ve got animals here as well, so I knew I had to still check the animals. My husband had been in hospital the night before so he was home by himself.”

It became apparent the family would have to bunker down and ride out the storm at home. That night, Kat listened as her farm was pummelled.

“My husband sleeps through anything. So, he went to bed, and he slept. And the whole way through the night I was poking him in the ribs and saying, ‘There’s glass smashing!’. I could hear tin ripping and banging every 20 minutes and he said, ‘I’m not going outside in my jocks to check what smashed, you’ll just have to wait until daylight and see what’s wrong out there’.

“I just laid there awake listening to everything smashing and ripping and breaking. You hear the glass, and you don’t know if it’s the house of the car window and you can’t see anything because it’s pitch black.”

The next morning at first light, Kat was able to see the path of destruction. “The trees had come down into the driveway and brought all the powerlines down through the driveway, through the paddocks, so I got my husband up and told him, this is bad. We went on foot but we couldn’t get out of our driveway it was just so blocked with trees and powerlines.

“We could only get down our back paddock and just check our sheep and our horses, but we couldn’t get to our other block to check our cattle, we were stuck.”

With Brenton unable to use a chainsaw due to his injuries, the couple realised there was no way out. “We were actually trapped with no power no phone service; we couldn’t ring for help. It was just crazy.”

On the afternoon of the 10th, Kat finally got enough service to send a Facebook message to a friend, asking for help. But after some investigating, he realised there was no way out, or in, for kilometres. The damage was too widespread.

“We ran out of food and water. We had no water pumps because we had no electricity and no way to get water out of our tanks, we had to drain water out of the horse troughs and boil it on the camping stove so we could have a coffee and wash our faces. And then we ran out of food.”

In the end, the family was frying pieces of bread on the camp stove just to eat something. When Kat finally got some patchy phone service, she says she was able to reach the SES. But with the number of jobs piling up, she was told their farm was low on the priority list.

The family was told by their power company that their situation was an emergency - but still no one came. So after almost five days, the family and the rest of the farmers in the area took matters into their own hands. “We all got chainsaws and excavators and just busted ourselves out. We just decided no one’s coming to help us, so we had to help ourselves.”

Dodging powerlines and fallen trees, they were finally able to get out and source food. But having their power restored would still be days away. And it was nearly a fatal venture. Power crews arrived ready to restore power, Kat explained, unaware the family still had lines down all over their property.

The next day the powerlines were repaired, but it only left the farm with lights – no power points were working. It meant another five days without proper electricity. “It was the craziest thing I’ve ever been through.” But for the Gration’s the ordeal is far from over.

With Brenton away running the family transport business most of the time it’s left Kat to juggle the normal day-today running of the farm, the family and the clean-up.

“I’ve half repaired one fence and we’re still waiting to be able to chainsaw trees everywhere off fence lines. We’ve got $50,000 worth of fencing to repair and not enough time and not enough sets of hands. We’ve got calving cattle and ewes having lambs so that’s taken up a lot of my time.

“We’ve basically cleaned up around the house where we have to live and just written the rest of the farm off. We’ve got landslips that have destroyed all of our tracks so we can’t even get to our paddocks without machinery coming in and redoing all of our farm tracks.”

Kat says volunteer organisation BlazeAid has been in contact but has been told it has almost 200 farms in the area on its waitlist. The Grations, who’d only been on the farm for three years, estimate it’ll be three to five years before their farm will be back to its former glory.

WALHALLA & SURROUNDS STORM DAMAGE

Photo by Rae-Anne Vincent

WALHALLA & SURROUNDS STORM DAMAGE Photos by Doug Pell

The Gippsland Storms

NOOJEE STORM DAMAGE

Photos by Wendy Morriss

Corporal Stokes and Lieutenant Colonel Scott D’Rozario, commanding officer of the 22nd Engineer Regiment , discussing the progress of clearing fallen trees from the Traralgon Creek Road, Koornalla.

DEPARTMENT

OF DEFENCE Images kindly supplied by Robert Hogan

The Australian Defence force (ADF) has been requested to support the Victorian Government following severe storms across the state in mid-June. On the 16th June 2021, five ADF planners were sent to Victoria to assist affected communities. On 18th June 2021, the ADF received a further request for up-to 120 personnel to support recovery efforts in support of Victorian emergency services in areas and communities affected by the severe weather event. Defence has a range of capabilities to support states and territories in response to natural disasters, provided through the Defence Assistance to the Civil Community process.

After completing the task of clearing fallen trees on the road, Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel travel back to base in an Army G-Wagon along Traralgon Creek Road, Koornalla. The ADF has been clearing roads in the area over the last two weeks, supplementing the support provided by local government and emergency services orginisation across Victoria.

Seaman Lachlan Betts-Newby, from HMAS Cerberus, and Private Law Na, from the 8th/7th Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment, shifting cut logs off the road to allow vehicle access from the side of Fishers Road, Boolarra South

Snapper Alana Speir from the 22nd Engineer Regiment sharpens her chainsaw in preparation for clearing fallen timber from Fishers Road, Boolarra South.

An engineer road cleaning team from the 22nd Engineer Regiment cuts up a fallen branch , so it can be removed by the waiting personnel from the side of Fishers Road, Boolarra South.

KALORAMA CHAOS

THE NIGHT THE WORLD CAME CRASHING DOWN

Words by Anita Butterworth | Photos by Natalie Guest

In just a few terrifying hours, the storm that ripped through Gippsland in June also unleashed its terror through the Dandenongs. Ancient trees were felled like twigs and houses destroyed in minutes. For Natalie Guest’s family, it meant fleeing for their lives, with little more than the clothes on their backs.

Kalorama is nestled in the Dandenong Ranges, just 35kms from the city, but feels more like a slice of Gippsland than a suburb of Melbourne.

The towering Mountain Ash, the chirp of birdsong and the breathtaking views were more than enough to entice Natalie Guest, her husband Lee and daughter Millie to set up their nest adjacent to the dense forest four years ago.

“We just love it, we’re outside all the time, we’re always in the garden or on the deck and it’s just our sanctuary,” said Natalie.

Their 3300 square metre haven rests on the side of a hill, right next to national forest. No fences, neighbours worth their weight in gold and a garden that was just beginning to flourish.

Natalie, an interior specialist, ran her business Tait Interiors from her slice of paradise. It was the life they’d craved.

On June 9, Natalie was aware the wind was due to pick up. There had been general warnings for the state. But nothing she needed to be worried about, she told herself.

“We did know it was going to be windy, over 90ks an hour. I heard on TV the night before but wasn’t specific to the Dandenongs. We’ve had warnings before, and not that you get complacent but you just assume it’s never going to get that revolting.”

It wasn’t until around 3pm when the house was being belted with rain, that Natalie looked out the window.

“I was actually watching trees drop in the block above us from about three in the afternoon. They were just going over like matchsticks. Just dropping. And I thought, ‘These are massive trees’. I’m talking like 60 plus metre trees – it was just mental. I realised this was something different. This was a different level of ‘Oh, s*#t!’”

Natalie’s street group chat was constantly pinging with updated information. Trees down on this road, blocked access in this area. The information was trickling through via social media, and being dispersed through the modern-day bush telegraph.

Natalie phoned her husband and told him he’d need to find an alternative route home from work at 4.30pm. It took him an hour to finally walk through the door.

“I was pleased he was home, but at the same time I was thinking I really wish we’d left. But when I had that thought, we were cosy at home, we were ok. But there was just something about that afternoon when I saw those trees going that I knew it was going to be a different kind of night.”

At that point, the house still had power. But Natalie could see the power lines laying in a puddle in the street having been brought down by wind and trees falling. So the family turned off every appliance. They warmed themselves by the fire and made dinner on the gas stove.

They the made a decision that would prove to be potentially life saving. “We made a conscious decision to be downstairs, because we thought if upstairs goes, that’s where we’re safest.”

While Lee and Millie tried to get some sleep, Natalie Googled, ‘how to survive a cyclone’. She was terrified. And with good reason.

Somewhere around 10.30pm, a monstrous Mountain Ash crashed down onto the house.

“It came through and I didn’t know what to do, my first instinct was to run. I went upstairs thinking we could go out the front door, but the front door was in two pieces.

KALORAMA CHAOS

“I woke hubby yelling ‘We’ve got to go, we’ve got to go’. He wanted to look upstairs and I said, ‘No we’ve got to get out.’ It was about an 80 metre tree that came through on the diagonal and cleaned up upstairs.”

In their rush to flee the house, the family couldn’t find their pet Cocker Spaniel. She was left behind.

“We had to scramble over the head of the tree that had come through from upstairs. It had gone across the house and was on the ground over where we were trying to get through.”

Natalie’s neighbours, twins Amy and Clare were yelling out to the family, guiding them to safety.

“We clambered over the head of this tree and hubby just kept yelling at me, ‘Is this a bad dream? Is this real?!’ and I just kept yelling, ‘Just go, just go! The two girls were standing there with torches yelling out, ‘Over here, over here!’”

Bruised and scratched the family made it next door. Amy braved the storm to rescue the family’s dog. And that night, they did everything possible to comfort the shocked family.

“They took us in, all night they tried to make us as comfortable as possible, there were lots of offers of cups of tea or shots of whisky. Those girls are dynamite they really are our angels.

“I can’t even speak about them really without …” Natalie trails off, choking back tears.

The next morning, the family saw the full extent of the damage. Natalie’s work vehicle was completely destroyed. Two more trees had cut through the house.

And they weren’t the only ones. Dozens of houses were damaged, and roads completely blocked. Amy would eventually be the first to get out and ferry groceries to those who had no way of getting out.

The first people who eventually made it to Natalie’s home was a CFA strike team. “We didn’t know what was going on in the outside world to be honest. Whether it was just our street or whether it was the whole mountain or whether it was down in the ‘burbs, we really just didn’t know.”

Since the storm, the family has been living in a rental, trying to take in the extent of their ordeal.

“Really surreal. That’s probably the best description. Did that really happen? When I went upstairs and saw what had happened, I thought, ‘I don’t know if this can be fixed.’”

According to Natalie’s insurance, it can’t be fixed. It will be some time, possibly years before they’re able to return to their tree change dream. But Natalie’s adamant – they will return.

THE LONG & WINDING ROAD TO RECOVERY

Words by Anita Butterworth | Photos by Doug Pell

In just a matter of hours, the June storm event caused destruction that will stretch far beyond 2021. The wide-reaching devastation left dozens of Gippslanders without a place to live and farmers with properties that will take years to recover.

But just as quickly as the storm revealed its ruinous path, Gippslanders came to the aid of their own. As with so many natural disasters in the past, help is never far away.

Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund was once again mobilised, launching an appeal within hours of the storm hitting. Even before the full extent of the damage was known, the charity was aware they’d be needed.

“The thing that was surprising was the ferocity of the wind damage,” said Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund President Andrew Tegart.

“We saw trees falling, significantly older trees. They caused significant impact with two things. We’ve got power outages which everyone experienced, and AusNet reckoned it was the most significant damage they’d had to their distribution system in their history. We then had 45 road closures as the result of both flood and storm damage effect.

“And then we had a whole heap of properties whose private access was cut so then people were isolated. They lost often power and communications. As well as then suffering flooding and storm damage. That took a while for that assessment to occur, so that the recovery teams could access those locations to collect information.”

The impact was immense. Up until August 7, the GERF Appeal for the Gippsland Floods and Storm event had distributed emergency financial support to 338 families and farmers to the value of $741,000 across five local government areas of Gippsland. Latrobe City and Wellington Shire bore the brunt of the damage.

“The recorded losses are around 95 homes impacted by flooding, both farm and residential, and a further 115 damaged from storm and trees. The event resulted in the evacuation of families, land slips, very protracted power outages some 45 road closures from inundation and tree fall and damage, numerous private access roads cut, and wider tree wind throw and damage across the region.”

Farmers took a huge hit. More than 90 agricultural buildings, including eight dairies, were lost or damaged. Along with the loss of 60 irrigation pump systems, 528 livestock, 453 hectares of standing crops, 285 tonnes of hay, 5979 hectares of pasture, 1107km of fencing, four farm vehicles, 17 items of farm machinery and five apiaries. Some orchards and fruit crops also sustained damage.

The money raised by GERF meant almost immediate financial relief for many of the families, who were still coming to terms with their losses. Thanks to the generosity of other Gippslanders, it was tangible assistance even before government funds started to flow.

The GERF response is part of a wider recovery effort, which has included not for profits like the Lions, Red Cross and Blaze Aid as well as a whole of government response through agencies including the SES, DELWP and Bushfire Recovery Victoria.

Alongside the work of GERF, Latrobe City activated its emergency relief plan, as dozens of people were displaced with very little warning. “On the day before the storm we worked out what equipment we’d need if we needed to open up a relief centre,” Latrobe City Coordinator Health Services and Municipal Recovery Manager Robyn Duffy explained.

“Essentially, we were trying to avoid opening up a relief centre just because of Covid requirements and restrictions, but pretty much the next day we started having people brought out to us because their houses were flood impacted.”

In the immediate aftermath, Latrobe City, supported by other agencies including the Red Cross and VicPol, helped accommodate around 30 people in temporary accommodation.

And the work is continuing. “We’re still doing secondary impact assessments. We’re trying to make sure we don’t miss anyone. So, if anyone calls us and they didn’t realise there was any support, and they were affected we’ll go out to that road to see if it’s an isolated situation. We’ll then try and look at every property in that road and cross that off so we’re not missing anyone.

“There are definitely people out there still who are impacted. Even within the flood areas within Traralgon, some people can’t go into their house because of the damp so they’re waiting for that to be treated or in discussions with their insurance company. They may have to gut parts of the house that have been impacted, so they may be staying with their family."

“They may just come in to do work around their house or may have set up a caravan on site. But there’s certainly extensive damage throughout both the flood and storm areas. We’ve got lots of big trees down, lots of fencing that’s been damaged, pastures have been impacted by the amount of rain. So, there’s lots of work still going. So, it’s helping them with the immediate work that has to be done, and we’re looking at the longer-term recovery processes. One to two years after an event that typically could happen.”

For GERF, distributing more than half a million dollars in donations also continues. “It’s important to stress that tangible losses are not the whole story,” said Andrew. “Research has indicated a further 50 percent or more arises from the social economic costs and this broad impact is longer lasting for individuals, families, farmers and communities.

“Equally these impacts of natural disasters are not even across communities – research has also shown that the most vulnerable and socially disadvantaged in our community are worse off following a natural disaster.

“GERF is about providing a small helping hand to all impacted community members to restart the journey of recovery.”

Donations can be made via Direct Transfer BSB 083 932 A/c No. 740196862, Paypal at www.gerf.org.au or at any at any branch of the NAB across Australia. All donations over $2 are tax deductable.