Repair work on rural properties at Mole Creek after the June floods has connected the community, thanks to the efforts of charity organisation Blazeaid.
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The Mole Creek base was set up on July 14 and 21 properties in the region including at Liena and Caveside have had work done on them, with 19 properties completed.
Blazeaid state coordinator Barry Thompson said the resilience of the community had really shown during the time the charity had been in the area.
He said the aid ethic had been infectious and those who had the Blazeaid volunteers at their properties had paid it forward by themselves being involved.
“We have a guy who drives every day from Launceston to help out and another farmer whose property we went to starting coming along afterwards to help out other landowners,” he said.
The connectedness and community spirit is all part of the Blazeaid effect as people see how quickly work can get done if everyone pitches in.
Mr Thompson said Blazeaid’s role was to assist and guide in the decision-making process as landowners try to recover and move on from the massive amounts of damage.
He said the Mole Creek area had been hard hit by the floods.
“It’s pretty bad, I don’t know how they are going to clean it all up, we can only do what we can.”
Mr Thompson said the damage, the debris and logjams, were some of the worst he’d seen, even after his years volunteering with Blazeaid.
“One guy down here, he has a bridge out and he has to travel an hour each way to get to the paddock where his cows are, but he can see them from his house.”
“That will definitely take a toll, because he now has to travel an extra two hours every day when before he used to just go over the bridge.”
Blazeaid can help landowners with clearing debris and fixing fences and a small group of volunteers works on one property at a time.
“We have a small team, four or five volunteers, that works on one property at a time but it’s amazing what small group like that can do in five hours.”
The organisation will look to wrap up its operations in Tasmania in October and have enough volunteers and supplies and is working on building and fitting out six trailers that will be left in the state.
The trailers are being made at Deloraine and will be fitted with all the supplies needed for the organisation if another emergency situation arises.
The trailers will remain in Tasmania when Blazeaid leaves the state.
Blazeaid also has base at Port Sorell that will wrap up on September 21.