For two months a Little Forest family has been displaced since the Currowan bushfire destroyed their home, but a considerate group of Rotarians has injected some optimism into their rebuild.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Rotary's Clubs from Hervey Bay to Milton-Ulladulla have combined to deliver a caravan to David Bland to help him return to the property he's lived in for the past 35 years.
Mr Bland cares for his mother Joan and on New Year's Eve they had to evacuate with anything they could grab from the house his father, John, built.
"It just impacted that fast, without warning, that the precautions I'd taken weren't effective and I didn't have time to use the equipment that I had," he said.
"I had it in my head the vision of a fire front, but it didn't happen like that. Everything you can see around here was on fire within seconds."
David evacuated to Milton, but then walked back to his property a few hours after the fire swept through Little Forest Road and surrounding areas on the morning of New Year's Eve. He discovered their house had crumbled to the ground.
A friend offered their home to David and Joan and they've recently relocated to a home in Mollymook. Despite the necessity, David felt as if they were imposing on their friend's life.
"It's fairly traumatic. You know, the first place we were staying was actually in someone's house with someone else's furniture.
"Now it's our furniture, which has been kindly donated by the community. But yeah, it's still traumatic. This is our home, this is where we want to be."
Now they're able to continue their healing process. David and some friends from Landcare have begun clearing debris into stacks and piles around the property. It did not feel good to see his life's belongings in ashes.
"It's going to help a lot with the process that we're going through here. It just means I can get up in the morning and start working. I've got my horse here and my chooks and it's just a lot better to be here."
David has a balanced approach to the experience at the disaster recovery centre. He said it was a maze and he had to repeat his story at each desk, with a new person each time, but agencies and authorities had a huge opportunity to improve the process if a disaster like this occurs again.
"I think it's something on this scale they haven't dealt with when they're bringing all those services under the one roof," he said.
"I could see that as an improvement in the future that if all those services who are involved were to have all that information drawn from one central database."
A Hervey Bay resident named Don donated the caravan after his local Rotary Club launched an appeal to help bushfire affected families in NSW.
"It's been in my garage for years. I am sure someone else can make better use of it," Don said.
The six-berth caravan is nine-years-old and in excellent condition.
Clubs from Hervey Bar, Caloundra, Tweed Heads, Ballina, Coffs Harbour, Taree, Newcastle and Caringbah helped deliver to caravan, which arrived on Tuesday.
David said he was grateful for their help.