I love it when a plan comes together

When the Premier came to Flowerdale on 4th March the most important thing he said as far as the community was concerned was "this is a community government partnership". It was also at that time that Christine Nixon had visited the town in her new role as head of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority. On that day we handed over our plans for the temporary village.

The execution of the temporary village plan has been happening fast and the good news is that the government and VBRRA are delivering. The next eight flat pack semi permanent units are coming next week. Power will be on by next Friday and the design for a communal kitchen has been accepted and will get going soon. As I mentioned previously the road and lighting are in train.

It has been a smooth process and the speed with which things are moving gives us great confidence in the VBRRA. They have also helped us navigate other departments, for example they have been able to fast track our fundraising permit through Consumer Affairs.

While Flowerdale has been called the DIY town for our approach of getting on with things ourselves, the key thing we did was to get our plans in place and work with a wide range of people and organisations from the corporate, philanthropic and govermnent sectors.

It bodes well for the future as we start to think about the rebuilding phase. A key focus will need to be on sustaining Flowerdale's community spirit and ethos, while providing a sustainable future in terms of the environment, infrastructure and economy.

The Royal Commission was in town yesterday in a closed session. It is the start of what will be a long process to ensure that the events of Black Saturday are not seen again. If you couldn't get there and have ideas for prevention we have set up a website at firevoice.uservoice.com which is collecting ideas for presentation to the Royal Commission. You can add you ideas or simply vote or comment on the ideas that are there.

Although I wasn't in town on Black Saturday I have put in a number of ideas around communication. I know I was trying to get information on what was happening and there were major issues around the timeliness of information on 774, lack of detail coming out of the CFA and the DSE website wasn't working. I was trying to get updates on Flowerdale during the day but there was nothing coming through. We would really appreciate your input and ask that you spread the word.

Slash helps out and so do many others

Great story in the Herald Sun today about local resident Gavin Duggin being sent a guitar by Slash from Guns'n'Roses. It is amazing to see the way that the stories of bushfire affected people touch the hearts of so many.



The guy handing over the guitar is Wes Carr from Australian Idol, must admit i have lost track of Idol people since Guy Sebastian, but good on you Wes for doing it. At least you look like a rock star.

We also got contacted today by Neville and Leslie Woollard, a couple who are passionate metal detectors, with all the latest high tech equipment. They have offered to use their detectors to recover any jewellery, coins, medals or other metal items that may have survived the fires. if you are interested in taking up the offer let John Burgess know, he has their contact details. Alternatively ping me an email and I can arrange with John, pewilliams@deloitte.com.au.

The Beaconsfield Kindergarten donated some money to the kindergarten and Trudy Fraser who is involved with a Kindergarten for deaf children has also donated some books. All of these fantastic offers of cash and assistance are coming through the donations site www.flowerdalerelief.com. The site was built by some of the graduates from Eclipse, the web company I used to run. It was done in a hurry but is working. We also will have our fundraising permit sorted by tomorrow, thanks to Emma at VBRRA and Consumer Affairs Victoria for helping us get this through so fast. We will then be able to officially take donations.

I also ran into a couple of guys who do tree lopping from Perth. They were in town for a few days and made some friends. They are coming back on 30th March to do quotes and will start work on 3rd April, they are also looking for help from local contractors. Their email address is elementstreesolutions@yahoo.com.au if you want to contact them either for tree lopping or to pick up some work.

CPR for Dummies and Chris Martin says hello

I was wondering what to write today so I jumped on to the photo stream from the village on Flickr and was totally confused by what I saw.



Then I realised it was the guys doing their CPR first aid training. I was the dummy in this case. This has been organised by Billy Price and the CFMEU, great to see community members taking initiative, using their networks and helping lots of other community members in the process



Now we haven't been known for complaining since the fires, more just getting on with it, despite the hardships; but I had heard around the rec reserve that people were getting a little over sausages. Not that the Hales Institute team weren't doing their best to be a creative and I was a fan of the curried sausages but there hadn't been a lot else on the menu.



The problem was we had a lack of access to a meat supply. The great news is that we now have an account at the Yea Butcher and the menu diversity will be back to what it was.

A mate of mine was at the Coldplay concert in Sydney and let me know that Chris Martin, recent visitor and friend of Flowerdale, had arranged for a few Flowerdallians to get to the concert and said hello to them from the stage. What a top guy, his visit up here was a great thrill to many and Viv from the pub is still talking about it.

The portable chalets, or in local lingo, the dongas, have been wired up and are ready to go.

We are looking at getting in a road around the site so everything will be accessible if it gets wet. It wasn't really bad this week but you could see that it could get bad pretty quickly if there was some heavy rain.

Moving in and some useful links

The first two semi permanent units were occupied today which is a great milestone. The wet weather has made things a bit muddy but not too bad. We will need to get things done before winter arrives and we are working on it.

The Victorian Bushfire Recovery and Reconstruction Authority has launched a web site at www.wewillrebuild.vic.gov.au. Not much there yet but should be a key source of information on the activities of the VBRRA as things unfold.

There are a couple of Kinglake Ranges websites www.kando.org.au, and the Kinglake Region Business Network, www.krbn.com.au, which has lots of information for business owners in the region.

I have been asked about local contractors getting involved in the cleanup, Grocon are coordinating the work and have an email address firecleanup@grocon.com.au hazardous goods need to be cleared by A and B class removalists. So email them and someone tell Stylesy because I cant find his number.

This morning the Herald Sun published a story on Warnie and Chris Martin's secret visit to Flowerdale, well you heard it first on the Flowerdale Blog 10 days ago, (bloggers just love it when they beat the traditional media to the story)

You are welcome as we look to the future

It is great to see the number of visitors to Flowerdale dropping by the Pub and Shop and giving the community moral support. The main thing people say is that they feel like they are intruding; rest assured we welcome you to come to town. I handed out a heap of car stickers for our relief fund www.flowerdalerelief.com so the visitors can make a contribution by maintaining a level of awareness of what is happening here.

We were pleased to see our friends in Marysville moving along the temporary village path to keep the community together and get momentum for rebuilding.

Today a few of us are getting to look to the future and identify what projects we want for the longer term. In addition we are completing the Fundraising Permit paperwork and should be able to take cash donations rather than pledges next week.

The residents who went to Sound Relief got home about 1.30am this morning, soggy but inspired with the support from the Australian Music Industry and the Australian people.

The key message from yesterday was that if we stick together with our unique Aussie sense of mateship and community we can together overcome any adversity. I think it also reinforces that the best way to achieve happiness is through what you can do for others. I have had a lot of expats from other countries in the last month say to me that there is something special in the Aussie spirit and ability to band together, that they didn't see in their home countries. I think we often don't see it because it has always been there in us.

The other message was that no matter how tough it gets things come back around. The grass, creek, trees and wildlife in Flowerdale are showing us how and that belief in a better future keeps us driving forward.



I spent an hour last weekend watching a pair of magnificent Wedge Tailed eagles rebuilding a nest in a burnt out tree in a burnt out forest. Maybe it wasn't the ideal living scenario but they were home, they were staying and getting on with it. The joy they gave us as they soared majestically overhead gave us a renewed sense of purpose. Hopefully you can find some of that in your life everyday, no matter how tough the future challenges may appear. Don't be scared to ask for help, your fellow Aussies will step in for you.

Roads are open, Grass is greener

Drove up today and the roadblocks that had seemed like a permanent presence have gone. Anyone wanting to visit can drive up to Whittlesea and drive along the Whittlesea-Yea Rd and get into Flowerdale. Personally, I think that it is worth taking the drive just to get an understanding of the scale of the disaster. Make sure you drop into the shop and pub if you go through, they need the business!

Lots of the survivors went to the Sound Relief concert not sure where the tickets came from but thanks to whoever gave them to us. Pity about the weather, but I am sure the support and goodwill from a full MCG crowd will give them all a boost. Great to see the Oils, Hunners and Enz back together for this event.

With some rain on the hill the grass that was once black is now reshooting and a tinge of green is is coming through. There were even a few of the gum trees starting to show signs of new growth. The King Parrot Creek was getting some reasonable flow which also must be good.

We had a good community meeting last night and the mood of the Community remains good. It is the sense of community that has helped get us to where we are now and will sustain us into the future. Of course there will be frustrations but I think Flowerdale has shown that it can jump any hurdles put in its way.

The rec reserve continues to move and we took up some more laptops and xboxs today (thanks Steve), we are trying to grab another portable site office to set up an internet cafe and games area. That is tomorrow's job.

We are starting to put together some ideas for longer term projects that will provide additional amenities and infrastructure for the future. If anyone has ideas please leave a comment.

A busy day and we meet the Ride of Fire

Things were pretty hectic yesterday, the generator running the coolroom ran out of fuel, a couple of other things broke down and plenty of work was happening on site. Things were sorted by the end of the day thanks to some quick action by the locals and DHS stepped in to sort out the fuel supply problem. Once we get power to the site things will be OK but these things happen when you are doing it on the fly.

At 1.30 we got a call from Boyd Jackson, he has organised a Harley ride down from Cairns to raise money for bushfire victims and was in Yea. Having ridden 4000kms we thought it only fair he ride another 20 and come into town. Harleys are a common site around Flowerdale so I told him he would be more than welcome, also to get his skates on so he could get lunch at the pub. Boyd and his group have raised $40,000 for the bushfire appeal. I will try to grab some pics once Boyd gets back online. See www.rideoffire.com

The guys had a look at the destruction zone and then visited the village. I spoke to Boyd last night, he was overwhelmed with the scale of the disaster but also amazed at how the community has banded together to get things going. He said that he was going to ensure the group become "Friends of Flowerdale" and will continue to do what they can to help those affected by the fires.

My old mate Steve Outtrim, one of the pioneers of the internet, dropped by with an armful of xBoxes and games. These are so important because many kids coming back have not much to do and can be quite a handful. Thanks Steve.

Who knows what today will bring, no doubt we will have our challenges but we will work through them and keep marching on.

The double dongas hit the village

Well the Village keeps on growing and the first of the two bedroom Portable Chalets (formerly known as Dongas) hit town yesterday. Those guys from Fortescue are unbelievable.

They will be great for a small family and they look really good.



We are getting power into the village via SP Ausnet which will give us the capacity to house a lot more people. Electricians are putting all the wiring in place and we will be ready to go very soon.



If you are a resident of Flowerdale and are thinking of coming back talk to your DHS case manager and let them know you are interested or drop me a line pewilliams@deloitte.com.au and I can give you some background information.

Our donations site is going well, we have got our second car, which will be useful for a family that has lost their means of transport. www.flowerdalerelief.com

I am working with InfoXchange to get computers to people who lost their own computer in the fires. Slight problem is that across the state there have been 560 requests and to date we have got 120 computers from organisations like NAB, Telstra, Deloitte and some personal ones that have been donated. If you have more computers than you know what to do with and want to free up some space let me know and we can get them out into the field.

The Community meeting this week has been moved to Friday night at 8.00pm at the Recreation Reserve.

By the way if you want to come up and have a look you can get into town by taking the Hume Highway to the Broadford/Flowerdale exit and turn right into the Strath Creek Rd. There are no road blocks and Steve and Viv at the pub do the best Chicken Parma going around so drop in, you will be amazed to experience the community spirit in a time of tragedy. Much better vibe than the doom and gloom of the financial crisis.

This is the place for a village

The first two semi permanent units are pretty well built and look great.



They should be finished today and hopefully we will have them inhabited very quickly. I am trying to work out what we do with furniture but hopefully that is in hand. We have a really cool laundry facility which came from Leightons, I think.



Spent quite a bit of time over the long weekend with Andrew Forrest and his team, they really got in amongst the locals, and delivered plenty of action combined with compassion. All of the Portable Chalets from Fortescue Metals are now in place and looking good. We can't thank Andrew enough for his drive, dynamism and delivery.



"Andrew Forrest with Crash, the man behind Crashtown"



"Andrew Forrest with Lynette and her son, some of the first residents in our Village"

John Burgess and I visited Marysville yesterday, they are moving quickly to establish a temporary village. They have a great area across from the golf club which has power and plumbing and it should receive its first portable chalets (the mobile homes formerly known as Dongas) this week. The marysville guys seem to be hitting their straps and things are on the move there as well.

My other big problem is that I am being inundated by kids and parents seeing if we can get some deals on electronics, now the kids have somewhere to stay they want their Wii's, DS's, IPods and xBox's. Trying to see what I can do.

I also don't think any of the victims got any Sound Relief tickets, bugger, would have been nice to participate in something put on for the Bushfire Victims. We missed the National Day of Mourning as we were all up here flat out on getting the Village going. Oh well at least Warnie came to visit with Chris Martin.



"Warnie with Todd and Ian, two guys who turned up from Queensland three weeks ago and haven't stopped working as Volunteers on the ground"

Warnie comes to town with a little Coldplay

Well little Flowerdale had some surprise visitors today, Australia's greatest bowler Shane Warne came into town with Chris Martin the lead singer of Coldplay.

They first dropped by the school and then mingled with locals at the Flowerdale Hotel. There was lots of excitement as they rubbed shoulders with the locals, heard the stories and witnessed the devastation caused by the bushfires.

It is hard to express just how much visits like these mean to the community. Before Black Saturday, Flowerdale was a fairly well kept secret and never in their wildest dreams would the community think they would be rubbing shoulders with such well known celebrities. It really tells them that people all over the world care about what has happened to them and are willing to give support.

Can't thank you enough guys, and when I get into town (wasn't there today, had my Uncle Bruce's funeral) I will grab some pics and put them on the blog so you can see how it went.

Murrindindi Shire announced that the Kilmore East/Murrindindi fire complex was offically under control which I suppose gives some level of closure.

On Sunday, Christine Nixon will be in town at 10.00am at the Flowerdale Pub to chat with locals, talk about the role of the Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority as well as how the relief fund will be distributed. Will be very interesting.

Anyway no rest for the wicked, we still have a temporary village to build and then we can take on the task of rebuilding the town. We have a long way to go, but days like today give us all a boost and the energy and resolve to keep moving forward.

How can we help other towns?

We got a call last night from a community organiser in Marysville asking us to share how we have been able to move quickly to get our temporary village off the ground.

It was a good opportunity to reflect on what we have learned and to share with another fire ravaged town what has enabled us to move quicky.

Marysville lost virtually everything and the death toll there was horrific. As the fires were deliberately lit there is still more work required by police and coroners before the rebuilding can be started.

We were fortunate there was some key infrastructure in the town that was saved by the locals which meant that a critical mass of people never left the Community and could continue to remain in Flowerdale notwithstanding it was a pretty tough few weeks.

We had the pub, the school and community hall together with the local shop. The Spring Valley Recreation Reserve, which is where the temporary village is, was untouched and gave us a logical place to set up. We certainly endured some very frustrating times trying to get essential supplies into town due to roadblocks which I outlined in some of my earlier posts.

I understand that Maryville was pretty well evacuated after Black Saturday and the community still isn't able to go back.

The recovery effort in Flowerdale is Community led and driven. The vast majority of the recovery effort and the skills applied comes from people in the town. People in the town have experience in Leadership, Logistics, Community Development, Consulting Engineering, Structural Engineering, Accommodation and Hospitality, Economics, Sport and Recreation to mention a few. Outside help was sought in areas such as Web Technology, Accounting, Electrical Engineering and Project Management. This help came from existing networks within the community.

We also have a two phased plan, Phase one was to get whatever we could into the town to feed and house the residents in the area that remained, this included the caravans, mining huts and tents. Phase two is to put in place some semi permanent accommodation, which the State Government has now committed to provide, which will ensure that there is quality accommodation for people to come back to during the rebuilding phase.

I am sure that the people of Marysville have the skills and capability to get things moving and when they have the opportunity to get back together they will also come out of this even stronger than they were before. I have spent a great deal of time in Marysville over the years and the drive through the Black Spur is in my view the most spectacular drive in Victoria. It is a fantastic town with a strong sense of community.

We wish the people of Marysville well and whatever we can share or do that may be able to help we are more than willing to do, at the end of the day we are all in this together.

Getting organised for Donations

Sorry for the late post today, things have been pretty frantic. We are just putting the final touches to a new website. http://www.flowerdalerelief.com

We have set up the site for people to pledge donations or to offer goods and services. it has been a rush job but it is looking good. We have to set up formally as a charity and then get a permit from Consumer Affairs to ask for cash donations which may take a little time but we decided to get the ball rolling and ask for pledges which we can follow up. We have already received donations via the pub, friends of residents, the Deloitte Foundation. We need money to be able to ensure we can maintain the food supply and also get the things we need for the Temporary Village. John Burgess is on SBS insights tonight @ 7.30pm and it seemed the right time to launch our own relief effort. The funds will be administered by the Deloitte Foundation to ensure that donations are spent on the right things.

If you run a website or blog a link would be great.

As part of our ethos in the Flowerdale Recovery Team we have decided that rather than wait for things to be formally organised via the relief fund we would get on and do it ourselves.



Water Tanks being put in place



Major General Cantwell, VBRRA, and Craig Lapsley, DHS, talk through the plans for the temporary village with Flowerdale Recovery Team

Village keeps growing

There is plenty going on in the Village, two of the semi permanent houses are being built right now at the top end of the rec reserve, bit like backyard blitz only faster. The units are provided by the State Government via the Office of Housing and great to see the Field of Dreams becoming a reality.

We have put in place a range of things for fire protection including fire rakes, extinguishers, 44 gallon drums with mops and the firebreak. We are pretty confident that we have the people and facilities on the ground to be OK for the extreme conditions tomorrow.

Major General John Cantwell flew in and had a meeting with the Community Council. He was clearly impressed by what we have been able to achieve.

Jeanette Kamar has been a real quiet achiever with the tennis club. We aim to build 4 new tennis courts in North West corner of the rec reserve. The tennis club has had 46 new players who have expressed interest in learning to play tennis. It is great to see how sport can help the community keep together and grow. Tennis Victoria has been the driving force behind this initiative with the support of the Department of Planning and Community Development.

Dongas in the Village

After a long journey from Perth the first of the Dongas (miners accommodation) arrived in the Flowerdale Village. They have been provided by Fortescue Metals and are in great nick. Each unit has a bedroom, bathroom, bench and desk and there are four in each of the dongas. They have electricity, plumbing, TV antenna and will be a great boost to the Village and local residents left homeless after Black Saturday.

Cash for Kindergarten

Just spoke to the locals, they want to reopen the kindergarten and need some cash to do so. They need about $5,000 to get going any ideas let me know. pewilliams@deloitte.com.au or 0433141943

On the Ground update

The ADF are on the ground helping with meals but the word is they are moving out tomorrow so the Flowerdallians will have to fend for themselves again. Not sure what the ADF strategy is they pulled out last Thursday then came back on Tuesday and are pulling out again.

There are quite a few kids there and the normal swimming holes in the King Parrot Creek have been contaminated so a couple of blow up splash pools might be useful but there is not much water, sure we can work that out.

The other thing that would be really useful would be child minding or a temporary creche. The parents are trying to get things together but have kids in tow, and anyone who has had kids knows how hard it is to get things done when kids are bored and hanging around.

Accommodation is a problem and hopefully we can get some caravans in soon.

Got the laptops today (thanks to the Deloitte IT people for sorting this out) and Telstra are helping me with Next G cards. Telstra have really stood up in terms of getting comms up and helping the victims.

I bought a printer/fax/copier to take up on the weekend which will be useful.

The residents of Flowerdale Rd, Glen Iris have adopted their namesake town, thanks Diana. If anyone wants to contact me re help call me on 0433141943 or email pewilliams@deloitte.com.au , i am also regularly updating on twitter my name on there is rexster

Crime Scene or Disaster Zone - a reflection

I have posted a number of times regarding the difficulty residents have had getting in and out of fire affected areas, even residents who have never effectively "left" their communities have experienced difficulties at roadblocks. There have also been problems whereby Vicroads publishes that a road is open to residents yet the police on the ground are not letting residents, with ID, through.

In my interactions with a number of different police officers most, but not all, refer to the fire affected areas as a "crime scene". If you think of a crime scene the objectives are to get people out, seal it off and carry out a detailed investigation. Applying a crime scene perspective at a roadblock results in "it doesn't matter who you are or what you are doing, you can't come in". As the fire affected area is spread over hundreds of thousands of hectares and many residents never left the area other than to access relief and return, a crime scene approach was always going to create point of conflict.

In a disaster zone the objectives are to make it safe, get the help and relief we need and remove any barriers or hindrances. Many residents in fire affected areas got very frustrated when they came up against the "crime scene" perspective when trying to get to relief centres and then return to their communities.

It does seem that the responsibility for roadblocks is now with Vicroads, which would indicate that the police have largely finished their work of victim location and identification as well as the investigative side of their work (those victim ID police have such a terrible job but do it very well). Hopefully there will be less conflict and stress and we can focus on the disaster zone perspective.

Help is in town

Just spoke to a journalist who was up in Flowerdale yesterday. Sounds like things are really happening. The army is back, power is gradually being restored and things are on the move. There is still a shortage of accommodation which no doubt will take time to coordinate.

Residents were feeling isolated but now feeling much better that things are on the move.

I have got six laptops with internet access, and a printer/fax/photocopier, to take up on the weekend, subject to my ability to evade roadblocks, and will do the grant applications so the residents will be more able to connect to the outside world.

DHS dislocation grants - too hard for survivors

i am really pleased that the DHS has made dislocation grants available however many survivors will struggle with the requirements.

To apply you need:

A copy of the form
Copies of ID documents (eg Licence, passports, medicare)
Copies of bills with your address
A statutory declaration witnessed by an eligible person

I took the forms over to my parents in law last night, and as i am an eligible witness (i am a Chartered Accountant, who became a web guy). They had their ID and were lucky to grab some paperwork when they left. They will need to get to a photocopier to lodge their form today to provide copies.

In places like Flowerdale many survivors will not have bills or ID, when your place is on fire you tend to grab photos and pets rather than bills. i dont think there is a copier in town.

I am taking forms in on the weekend with a printer and copier and will cover as many as I can but i think it may be a pretty big hassle for many in the affected communities. Will keep you posted