City of Ballarat presents Flowerdale with a Eureka Flag

This week we received a gift from the City of Ballarat in the form of a Eureka Flag. The Mayor and the CEO Anthony Schinck had seen me give a presentation in which I spoke about how the Eureka Flag had become a symbol in the town during the aftermath of the fires. The flag flew in many places around Flowerdale and was also on the grey "Never Give Up" TShirts that many Flowerdallians have in their wardrobe.



"Peter Auty holds up the Eureka Flag presented by the City of Ballarat"

In the letter that accompanied the flag, Anthony Schinck says that the flag represents the admiration for the Flowerdale Community as well as a reminder that we are not forgotten six months after the fires.

We will now put our minds to where it will go but at this stage we are looking at putting it at the relief hub.

City of Ballarat

Flowerdale Playgroup Receives Cheque

Flowerdale playgroup received a $6000 cheque to assist in the re-establishment of our playgroup on 25th August as we lost our facility where it was held.

It was given to us by Playgroup Victoria and the Federal Government. It was presented to our playgroup by Bill Shorten from Federal Parliment.

The presentation was made at a playgroup fun day in Healesville. Three families from Flowerdale playgroup attended to recieve the cheque. Marysville playgroup also received a cheque as they too lost their facilities in the fire .

The monies will be a great help for a playgroup for now and the future.

Flowerdale launches Build it Back Website

After some fairly intensive work over the last few weeks we have launched a step by step guide to rebuilding for Bushfire Victims called www.builditback.org. We have aggregated as many of the key links and documents on the web we can find and we are also getting video content from people with expertise such as Master Builders, Sustainability Victoria and Murrindindi Shire Council.



There has been really good feedback already from those who have seen it and tested it. We have tried to make it simple and easy to use and for those without internet connections you will be able to access it at the Flowerdale Integrated planning Office at the Hub.

The site was an initiative of me and the FRC. We had input from Leanne at the hub and Jimmy O'Keefe talked us through the difficulties faced by someone trying to work through the building process. The site was built by two guys I used to work with at Deloitte who now freelance, Jason Strachan the developer and George Hiley the web developer.

If you are interested in seeing George, the guy who built it and where he did it meet him below. He started the site in Indonesia and finished the site off in the remote regions of the Northern Territory. He is a hippy sort of guy.

Altona Lions Club - A community helping the Flowerdale Community

On Sunday 23 August the Altona Lions Club paid a visit to Flowerdale. The Altona Lions Club are working with the FLowerdale Community to establish a Picnic Ground with toilet facilities on the Moore's Rd Reserve.

The Reserve is behind the Flowerdale Pub on the banks of the King Parrot Creek and it is a beautiful spot to visit and take in the natural scenery of Flowerdale. Altona Lions reached out to the community a couple of months ago and we worked together to identify a project to help the community recover after Black Saturday.




It was great to see everyone up here and we look forward to working together on the Moore's Rd project.

Flowerdale CFA Fundraising Dinner

Flowerdale CFA Fundraising Dinner 31 Oct

Tool Library Opens in Flowerdale

Flowerdale now has its own tool library thanks to Lions Club of Whittlesea & Habitat for Humanity.

This will no doubt will be a useful asset for anyone rebuilding to be able to have tools on hand.
Some tools that are available are:

• Chainsaws
• Wheel Barrows
• Rakes
• Shovels
• Drills
• Hammers
• Axes
• Lots of other tools too many to list

To use facility and to find out details of when it is open you need to register via Leanne Pleash, DHS at the Hub.

Also if you are available to help out volunteering please contact Leanne Pleash 57802704.

Melbourne Storm Event

Melbourn Storm Event

Flowerdale/Hazeldene Initial Recovery Plan

The FRC met the deadline VBRRA put upon the committee to finish the intial recovery plan by th 18th August. After lots of long hours for two weeks we were able to submit the Community Recovery Plan in person on 18th August.
The following is the document that was presented to VBRRA.

Flowerdale Community Recovery Plan Final

Car Disappears at Store

I heard on the grapevine that a local resident dropped by the store last week and when he walked out his car had gone.

He immediately raced into the store and asked for the police to be called as his car had been stolen. While waiting for the police to answer it was pointed out to our local that there was a car in the creek which could be the one he was looking for.

The car was later pulled from the creek not too much the worse for wear. It put a new slant on the term "Flowerdale Recovery".

I dont want to name names but suffice to say it was a real "Who Dunn it"

Please feel free to add comments, intel but more importantly photos.

Flowerdale/Hazeldene Recovery Plan Meeting

The Flowerdale Recovery Committee had a very successful meeting with all people on work engines, VBRRA, Shire & DHS this evening. The input & feedback on our draft document was very informative and well on the way to completing.




As a group tonight it was decided that we need to list the priorities of the recovery plan. List 1-14.
We would like as many peoples input as possible as to what they may think are the priorities & due to short period of time we have to complete the task at hand we would like input back by Wednesday 12 noon.

The FRC apologiises for the short notice but we only have til next Monday to complete the whole document & send to VBRRA to meet the deadline put upon us.
All priorities can be returned to PO Box 2060, Hazeldene 3658 or email: jbateman@y7mail.com or phone 0418589072.

If you know of anyone who maybe interested in contributing can you please pass on the above information.

Thankyou on behalf of the FRC

Flowerdale/Hazeldene Recovery Plan

After discussions with VBRRA earlier this week the Flowerdale Recovery Committee found out the first draft of the Recovery Plan is the responsibility of the FRC and has to be submitted by 18th August.
Although we would have liked more notice we were heartened that we could take control of the process and drive the outcomes.

The key principles we have adopted in the plan are:

The Community spirit and resolve to build back safely and sustainably.
The community has expressed its desire to maintain those things which made Flowerdale a great place to live but use this opportunity to make Flowerdale safer, more sustainable, liveable and prosperous.

We will be submitting documentation by the 17th August to VBRRA & ask the community for feedback, suggestions & any alterations asap so we can meet the deadline put upon us.

If you know of anyone in the community who would like to view the document could you please pass on all information or to contact Julie Bateman (see details below) to organise a copy to be emailed to them or hard copy from Leanne Pleash (see details below).

For any comments, suggestions & alterations you would like to contribute please contact Julie Bateman: jbateman@y7mail.com or PO Box 2060, Hazeldene or phone 0418589072.

If you would like hard copy of this document it is available from Leanne Pleash, DHS Captain Hub, Flowerdale, please phone 57802704.

Thankyou on behalf of the Flowerdale Recovery Committee

Flowerdale Hazeldene Community Recovery Plan

Tools Library coming to the hub

After a convoluted process establishing land ownership (and a huge thank you to Russell Collins for getting us over the impasse) we're thrilled to advise that the Flowerdale Community Tool Library will be delivered onsite at the Flowerdale Community Service Hub this coming Tuesday, 11th August.

There will be an official opening once it gets set up, we will keep you posted.

The Tools Library is an initiative of the Whittlesea Lions Club and was driven by Alan Hayward and also Leanne Pleash, thanks to all involved for arranging what will be an important asset to the community.

Pulling together the Recovery Plan

After discussions with VBRRA this week we found out that the Flowerdale Recovery Committee is responsible for coming up with the first draft of the Recovery Plan by 18th August.

Although we would have liked more notice we were heartened that we could take control of the process and drive the outcomes.

The inputs into the plan are:

• The Safe and Sustainable Workshop with CSIRO in April
• The Future Flowerdale Forum
• Community Meetings since the fires
• Meetings with the FRC and leaders of the existing community groups
• The Forum with Mayor Bob Dixson and the Community Plan from Greensburg
  
• Meetings relating to the Kindergarten and Community House
• Inputs to the FRC via discussions or the blog

We have compiled the data and are in the process of pulling a plan together and hope to have a first draft by 7th August, 2009.

The key principles we have adopted in the plan are :

• The Community spirit and resolve to build back safely and sustainably.
• The community has expressed its desire to maintain those things which made Flowerdale a great place to live but use this opportunity to make Flowerdale safer, more sustainable, liveable and prosperous.

We will provide the draft at the Community Meeting at the Rec Reserve on Friday night, 7th August, and seek comment and input.

Once we add the input we will provide a first draft for discussion to VBRRA at the FRC meeting on Monday, 10th August.