Page 6 - 2020-02-Rotary-on-the-Move-Newsletter-Zone-8

‘ROTARIANS’ RESPONSE TO BUSHFIRE EMERGENCY’
Article by PP Ross Wade and Rotarian Issa Shalhoub, RC of Milton-Ulladulla, D9710

During the months of August to October, the citizens of Ulladulla looked on with concern as
reports came in about the serious fires affecting Queensland and Northern New South Wales.
However, their own complacency was shaken during the last weekend in November when a
serious bushfire outbreak rapidly spread around the neighbouring district of Batemans Bay,
66 kms south of Ulladulla. Ross Issa
For a whole week, local firefighters worked around the clock, so too did the local support staff to provide backup
food and basic provisions to the firefighters. However, by the afternoon of Friday 29 November the authorities
realised that even more support was required. An urgent call was sent out to the Rotary Club of Milton-Ulladulla to
see if Rotarians and provisions could be quickly organised to provide breakfasts and dinners for 50 to 100 firefighters
over the coming few days.
Immediately Rotarians rose to the occasion: food was organised, barbecues were found and borrowed, the call went
out by email for at least seven Rotarians to be support staff for mornings and nights and weary firefighters were
offered breakfast and dinner.
The first day, Saturday, went as planned with firefighters working around
the clock 15km into the bush beyond Termeil 20kms south of Ulladulla.
However, the temperatures were rising and the conditions were
deteriorating by the hour. On Sunday the fight was on to protect nearby
communities of Bawley Point and Kioloa, 27kms south of Ulladulla.
Monday came and the conditions were even more drastic. The fires had
broken containment lines, reached and crossed the highway in a number
of places and the race was on to protect houses. 200 firefighters were fed

that morning.
In the afternoon conditions deteriorated and the firefighters’ staging post had been forced to pull back to Burrill
Lake on the outskirts of Ulladulla, Rotarians bravely soldiered on to provide hot dinner to the firefighters that night.
However now the time had come to renegotiate our direct role with the local branch of the State Emergency Services
(SES) who had more facilities and planning behind them to cater for the urgency in the longer term. We and
community members supported the SES for a month by serving meals etc. to the emergency services personnel until
the support was taken off our hands as the staging post was moved further North in early January.
With the fires gaining the upper hand on New Year’s Eve and destroying numerous houses, an evacuation centre
was established at the Ulladulla Civic Centre and Rotarians offered assistance and support to evacuees, served meals,
provided beds and gave them hugs when they needed one.
Once the fires were under control donations poured in from all over the East Coast and were delivered to the Milton
Showgrounds where two basketball stadiums were filled. To unload the trucks forklifts and man power were
organised once again by emails to sort and distribute the goods to the bushfire affected residents.
Restaurants, coffee shops and accommodation houses along the South Coast are suffering as all tourists were asked
to leave in January, our Club has decided to change our meeting venue once a month to support restaurants by
having dinner or breakfast with our partners.
Rotarians will continue to rally and support the affected people; we will now be involved with the disaster recovery
and will continue to put ‘Service Above Self’. The South Coast is safe, open for business and we are looking forward
to hosting the 2020 District 9710 Conference in March.

L-R, front row, GYE Helena Zuil,
Rotarians and partners amongst the NSW Rural Fire Service Governor-General David Hurley and
Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons (first on LHS), NSW Premier Lady Hurley, Rotarian Avril Pryor,
Gladys Berejiklian and Shelley Hancock MP (both in the middle Audrey Saunders, back row, Club Pres.
Basketball stadiums full of the pic) in Milton, who travelled to thank the volunteers, Stephen Hladio, PE Leonie Smith,
with donations 14 Jan 2020 PP Phil Brown, 15 Jan 2020

Rotary on the Move February 2020 Page 6