“ I was born and bred in Lismore. Back in those days the Doctor was at the pub. They rang the Doc and told him my Mum was in labour. He asked how far apart the contractions were and he said. Goodo! I have time for another beer. That was the 70’s in the Northern Rivers. I went to Lismore public School and then Richmond River High.
I spent a good part of my life working on local fruit farms. I’ve worked in construction and a few other jobs over the years. Whenever there is disasters I just have to help. As a Christian I follow the …’Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ I like to help people in need.
My friend Greg Dollin started The Shed of Hope after the fires last year. I decided to get on board and started checking FB Marketplace and Gumtree for stuff that could help. Farming implements, furniture and tools. A lot of people who were renting places after the fires still needed furniture.
It slowed down a bit and then Drake caught on fire and so did pretty much the rest of the country. From February till the end of September in 2019 I drove over 50,000 kilometres. Some days we’d drive to Murwillumbah to get donations to take back to Tabulam. After the fires we were offered a few decent caravans from Sydney and up and down the coast. We got a lot of local caravans donated that were gutted out and in need of big work but we still had people living in tents who wanted to get back home to start again. We just wanted to make them as comfortable as possible with an instantaneous gas hot water system and little water tanks so at least they could have a shower.
The basis of The Shed of Hope is to build a 3. 6 m x 3 m shed with a thousand litre water tank and a sink. Under current regulations that can be used as a temporary dwelling for a 3 year period. They are used for multiple things. Some people use them for their fodder, others to store their tools safely.
All the work we do is voluntary. We built 24 then Covid hit. We’re about to start again. We have at least 50 shed to get done down at Nymboida, so about 60 for the Clarence area.
We have myself and Greg Dillon, Ray Parry who does great work, two other off-siders who give one day a week and our Secretary. We could definitely use more volunteers. We were given a few grants. We were able to buy an Excavator which was amazing. Before that all the sheds were done totally by hand, digging the holes, lifting the pole in, etc. They are built as a hay shed but still to council regulations. They are also built to Category 3 storm standards so they can handle a lot.
We could really do with collectors in the Lismore area. If someone has a 4WD we can lend them a car trailer to collect donated materials. We are going to start a tool bank at Tabulam which will cover 3 council areas so people can donate tools if they are in good condition. We also try and get water tanks and vouchers to help people out.
There are still so many people without homes. Those who were renting automatically lost a house and have to find somewhere else to rent. A lot had to move out of their areas to find somewhere. Down the South Coast properties went up over $100pw after the fires. We are trying to organise a resettlement grant for people which will help take the strain off a bit.
If anyone wants to donate, we really need a 4 x 2 metre flatbed trailer. With that we can carry up to 16 1,000 litre IBC tanks and water tanks. It would also make it safer for when we collect donated roofing iron which we can then forklift off. At the moment we are using a car trailer which means we have to manually unload. Volunteers just need common sense to help out, they don’t need building experience. The sheds are a very basic design. Obviously great if people have a chain saw ticket or things like that.
We could also really use the help of two mature collectors one day a week in the Lismore area. We can give them fuel allowance, just to pick up donations. We are a registered tax deductible charity so if someone wants to rent out a small industrial shed for storage, please let us know. If people are getting their solar panels replaced we will happily take the old ones because a lot of people are off grid. We use second hand roofing iron on the walls and brand new of the roof. We do have an account with Metroll so if people want to donate a sheet of iron that can just call Metroll Lismore.
After 6 years of severe drought prior to the fires a lot of farmers had to scale back on their insurance. We had one couple who had a choice of 6 months fodder and water or insure their sheds and tools. Naturally they are going to feed their cattle first so they lost about $30,000 worth of tools. They had their tractor insured but not their slasher so any help with things like that would be amazing. Some people have used their $50,000 grant from Red Cross to rebuild their bridges which burnt down so they have access back to their property. Between September and early February when it rained I was doing 16 hour days. We took a lot of stuff up to Drake, Pretty Gully, Long Gully and Ewingar. We look at who is most vulnerable.
The Government are also cutting back on a couple of the mental health workers contracts and not renewing them. Suicide attempts and suicides have increased dramatically with bushfire victims since the lockdown with Covid. One mental health worker covers the Tabulam Drake area. They’ve extended her by a month and said if anyone up there needs help to call the Ballina office which is over 2 hours drive away. It’s just awful.”