By Tyler Wright
Sassafras resident and founder of popular local group Mums of the Hills (MoThs) Belinda Young was “completely floored” when she realised she was announced as a contender for the title of Victoria Local Hero as part of the 2023 Australian of the Year awards.
“My first reaction was to crawl under rock…It was a huge honour,” Ms Young said.
“Then I started thinking about the opportunities that this would bring to highlight those issues we have up here, and how it could have a really positive impact on our areas.”
Mums of the Hills began in 2015, with one of its key missions to connect and empower women to help them face the common challenges that come with living in the Dandenong Ranges; including isolation and natural disasters.
Now with around 5,000 members, MoThs has helped facilitate practical support after natural disasters and lockdowns in recent years, making a directory of all the local food and retail businesses operating in the area, and where people could access psychological support and siloed information from authorities after the June 2021 storm event.
“When you didn’t have any power and you’ve got limited battery life on your phone and limited access to Wi-Fi or 4G, then it’s a bit of a luxury to be able to have a seat and search,” Ms Young said.
“Making sure that all of those are consolidated and together just to make it easier for people to find the information they need quickly informed, and they can make the right decisions for themselves…is something I’ve been involved in,” Ms Young said.
In 2020, Ms Young also organised a public event for residents to discuss disaster insurance through a Vic Health reimagning health grant, after the death of a Tecoma man due to fallen trees in a storm that swept through Belgrave.
“I searched and searched to try and find and an expert in this field to make sure that our locals could come and learn about it… we encouraged them to bring their policies with them, so they could check their insurance policies to see where they were vulnerable and what they could do, where they could go to, to make sure that they were fully covered,” Ms Young said.
Bushfire prepardness has also been a priority of Ms Young’s, having completed a master’s thesis in community response to a bushfire in 2014 and hoping to hold a bushfire preparedness session in coming months for families with pets.
“Often one of the inhibitors of people leaving [their home] is because of their pets… they don’t know where to take them or how it will respond to being in an area [of] high stress that possibly has a lot of other animals in it,” she said.
Ms Young said she is also working with Cire services to create a “chill out space” for residents on extreme or very high bushfire risk days, providing a cool space off the mountain for people to stay.
“Up here on the hill, if you’ve got to get off the mountain and you’ve got no family, there are very few places to go besides the supermarket or shopping centre to keep cool….so people often are reluctant to leave unless they absolutely have to,” she said.
“Encouraging people to – If they say they’ve got to get off the mountain – to actually go through with it, and not wait and see.”
Ms Young is also lobbying for the NBN to be classified as an essential service, after lockdowns and storm events highlighted the financial strain of families paying for data to work and learn form home.
“A lot of us, including myself, were without NBN for 71 days….we were paying $50 every two days, because we had my husband and my two kids all trying to work from home, and paying $200 to $250 a week on data for 71 days,” she said.
“People were foregoing their telehealth services because they couldn’t afford the data.”
“[It’s] an expense that families can’t afford, so with that being an essential service, it would help our most vulnerable…that being our single mums, our elderly and those living with a disability.”
The Victoria nominees in the Victoria Australian of the Year, Victoria Senior Australian of the Year, Victoria Young Australian of the Year and Victoria Local Hero categories are among 130 people being recognised across all states and territories.
The four award recipients from Victoria will be announced on the evening of Tuesday 8 November 2022 in a ceremony at Victoria Government House in Melbourne, which will also be available to watch via ABC iView from 6pm.
They will then join the other state and territory recipients as national finalists for the national awards announcement on 25 January 2023 in Canberra.
National Australia Day Council CEO Karlie Brand congratulated the nominees on their recognition.
“The 2023 Victorian nominees are a diverse group of achievers and community contributors,” Ms Brand said.
“Their endeavours remind us of the power we all have to make a difference.”
