By Tyler Wright
Community driven storm recovery was at the forefront of discussion at Olinda Community House on Friday 10 June as Dandenong Ranges residents shared stories one year on from the life-changing storm event which also ravaged the wider Yarra Valley.
Hills Creative Alliance Secretary Liz Millman, alongside Olinda Community House Community Development Lead Krystal Bassett, organised the ‘Community Resilience and Recovery Talk’ with lived experience community development practitioner Michelle Dunscombe.
Locals shared tea, coffee and cake in a seated circle while Ms Dunscombe drew on her experience in the Kinglake community after the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.
“There’s no time more important than when we’re in recovery in the community to be able to come together, work together and collaborate,” Ms Dunscombe said.
“You will have all experienced that spike of absolute community connectedness [within] the first fortnight after the storms; and it’s about how we capture that and keep that momentum going.”
Vicar at Kalorama’s St Michael and All Angels’ Anglican Church Rev. Andrew Smith joined the event, alongside a local arborist, councillors, Emerald and Olinda residents.
“The biggest lessons that I have learned have been from people that have been involved, told their stories and said, ‘actually, I can do this’ or ‘I know this person,’ or ‘did you know I had this,’ Rev. Smith said.
“I think the biggest example to me of that was just the number of generators that started appearing… there were people that were getting up [the mountain] and getting that stuff to us, and that was through local connections and resources, and the government and agencies didn’t have that, but [we did],” he said.
David, arborist and member of grassroots group ‘Treasuring Our Trees,’ said he found community groups have come together “organically” over the past 12 months.
“We’ve been salvaging materials since the storm to build primary school projects,” David said.
“There’s another group called Rescue Logs in the Hills… we’re now looking at sourcing materials as we’re building strong relationships with arborists and sculptors.”
Michelle Dunscombe talked through the ‘ABCD’ principles of community recovery; focusing on the ‘gifts of the community,’ tapping into existing resources and facilities, dismantling the idea of one local ‘hero,’ and acknowledging the efforts of a collective.
“What we found in recovery is we were encouraged to work against each other. And what I mean by that is there was so much competition for grants, there was a lot of ‘who was affected, who wasn’t affected’, there were systems bought in place that identified whether you lost your home, whether you didn’t lose your home, [if] you lost family, and labeling people [like that] was really quite damaging,” Ms Dunscombe said.
An Emerald resident said there are often professional skills to be found within community volunteers which can be utilised without solely having to rely on designated bodies.
“They have an investment in making [recovery] successful for the community because they’re part of [it],” she said at the meeting.
Another piece of advice from Ms Dunscombe was for all existing community groups to combine resources and plans to combine strength, rather than forging an individualized approach.
“Kinglake is aflush with sewing machines, because different groups went and applied for funding… all along the neighbourhood house had a cupboard full of sewing machines,” the community development practitioner said.
“My community looks back now. and thinks ‘gosh, I wish we had collected and celebrated all of the great things that we did do, because we forget when we get bogged down in the negative, particularly when we’re battling with insurance companies or changing regulations.”
She also reminded attendees healing from trauma is not a linear process – and it is okay to feel as if you are behind others in the emotional and mental recovery process.
Yarra Ranges Council’s one-year anniversary grants have helped community hubs hold information sessions and recovery talks such as this.
To find more information on anniversary events, visit https://www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/recovery/Community-and-wellbeing/Storm-Anniversary-Events
