FRC goes to Government House

The Flowerdale Recovery Committee attended a reception at Government House that was held both to recognise the work of the Recovery Committees but also to give the communities a chance to meet and get to know each other.

The FRC was picked up by a bus at 10.00am and did the milk run to Glenburn, Toolangi, Kinglake and Kinglake West.

The Governor opened proceedings thanking the Committee Members for their work and then John Brumby, Bill Shorten and Christine Nixon said a few words. The theme of all the speeches was that the government wanted to ensure communities had input into the recovery and the process should be community led. I think it is fair to say it was a bit slow to start but the process has been very community focused.

Christine Nixon's speech really showed how much she had got across to all the communities and it was obvious with the number of people she knew from across the 78 affected communities that she has been out at the coalface.

We spoke to many of the other communities and it was a very valuable exercise.

The biggest surprise of the day was to see all of the FRC dressed up especially Peter Auty in a suit.

We also got to have a great chat with Bill Shorten who has been a real supporter of Flowerdale and the whole recovery process. Bill suggested that Burgo and Peter Auty could feature in a "Men of the Bushfire" calendar but thankfully the rest of the FRC put a stop to those thoughts.

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