Boroondara Cares: In Action in Nathalia in Flood Aftermath

Boroondara Cares was an effort by the City of Boroondara and its Rotary Clubs to assist the people of the Shire of Moira in the devastating drought of a few years ago. Now, it has been revived to help the same community in the aftermath of their massive flood.

Surely we have all seen TV footage of sandbags being filled and used to make a levee bank around the town of Nathalia. Surely we all rejoiced as Nathalia withstood the siege imposed by the massive floods of early march. And now 10 of our members have some insight into the less urgent, but very demanding, work inherent in getting properties around Nathalia back to normal: Ian Pohl, Gerald & Gillian Swinnerton, Richard Logan, Lawrence & Ginia Reddaway; Kevin & Jane Rose, Bill Troedel, and David Corrigan.

We drove to Cobram through the dawn fog on Saturday; and then we were deployed to our work sites.

The first task for the group I was in was removing sandbags from around a farmhouse. It was hard physical labour: lifting wet and heavy sandbags onto wheelbarrows, and thence onto a trailer, and then unloading the trailer and spreading out the sand. We felt privileged to have assisted the 75 year old widow of a stalwart local Rotarian.

On the Saturday evening we shared a meal with local Rotarians. Spirits were high, whilst bodies were very tired.

On Sunday morning we helped a farmer near Nathalia to get the flood debris away form his fences. It was a very large field; but with a team of some 20 people from Boroondara Rotary Clubs, we cleared a vast amount of debris. Apparently we cleared a length of about 800 metres.

We all took care to have rests in the shade, and drink water. Everyone reported tiredness; but no-one reported injury – a brilliant outcome! Yet another case of Rotary in action.

Lawrence Reddaway