By Tyler Wright
From the one year anniversary of the June 2021 storm event to reaching the milestone of six months out of lockdown; it has been a busy year for Victoria Local Hero – and Sassafras local – Belinda Young, along with the popular group Mums of the Hills (MotHs) she founded in 2015.
“We’ve had an extra 2,500 members since the June storm… probably about 2000 since the start of the year,”Ms Young said.
“It increases by 100 members every two weeks.”
Now with over 5,000 members online, MotHs is a space that connects mothers throughout the Dandenong Ranges, and has also helped with organising insurance, bushfire preparedness and chainsaw workshops after natural disaster.
“I’m a member of the regional community recovery committee and looking at what recovery looks like now, and how we can help local community groups to do what they think that they need to do in their area to help get them back on their feet,” Ms Young said.
Ms Young also collated information about available mental health services and food directories during Victoria’s lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.
MotHs facilitated a hike through Sherbrooke Forest in June 2022, with counsellors and proper hiking guides to help locals reconnect with the environment after the damage inflicted after the 2021 storm event.
A planting day at Belgrave Lake was also head in May 2022 for children and mums to plant their own shrubs and trees after storm damage.
“There was a lot of intention behind that; not just to signify regrowth and renewal, but also to help kids connect with other people, and hopefully they’ll take great pride when they see all those plants grow and know that they they played a big part in that area regrowing,” Ms Young said.
Aside from helping facilitate numerous activities and gatherings, Ms Young has also been advocating for the NBN to be named in the essential services act, thereby ensuring companies act quickly to assist those without connection for long periods.
“Those weeks that we were without power, there [were] funds available to help locals pay for generators or pay to fill their fridges again, that wasn’t the case for NBN,” Ms Young said.
“We had our power restored after 21 days…however, we were still waiting a further 50 days for NBN to be restored, so we had 21 days without power [and] 71 days without NBN.”
Ms Young said she attended a telecommunications roundtable and also sent former federal telecommunications minister Paul Fletcher MP to Sassafras to show him how the infrastructure “isn’t suited for this area”.
“Not having NBN, not having phone service…it doesn’t just have to impact you financially or with your employment, but also your mental health as well, and physical health when you’re talking about telehealth services,” Ms Young said.
“You have those that are our elderly, that also are on an elderly pension or someone with a disability on a disability pension, and their pension is so small and they’ve been forced to pay for data then they’ll choose not to pay for the data if they’ve got to be isolated and not talk to people just so they can eat.”
With advocating for change in legislation expected to be a lengthy process, Ms Young in the meantime is working with telecommunication companies to implement data donation services, where customers can donate data back to the company for those in need to use.
“I’d love to see that happen for all mobile phone services, because that opens up the door for short term relief when the NBN is down, and you have to hotspot off your phone,” she said.
Ms Young was named Victoria Local Hero in the 2023 Australian of the Year awards for her work in the community, and said he started shaking in the Canberra ceremony on Tuesday 8 November.
“These issues affect every single community around Australia, they just don’t know it. We had the storm and we lost NBN. o many other people have had floods and they’ve been affected in the same way. And it wasn’t until they went through the disaster that they then learnt about this; how fragile our telecommunications infrastructure is in the face of climate change.
“I’ll be doing my work trying my hardest to make a positive difference in the year that I have as the Victorian [local hero] recipient”.
And that will include continuing disaster insurance workshops, helping others build chainsaw skills and building first aid skills for others to help each other in the instance of a disaster.
2023 will also bring a new in-person hub in Belgrave for Mums of the Hills members to attend workshops, work and to access mental health support while their children may be playing at Belgrave Kindergarten below.
“There’s that struggle where traveling into the city or is really tough when you’ve got to leave the kids in childcare back in the Hills, or you’re wanting to be able to work with people, but you don’t want to have to travel so far away, to be able to do that you want to be with people but you want to be close to your family as well,” Ms Young said.
“What we’re hoping to achieve is a continued supportive space, despite our size.”
One way of doing that is making a token for MotHs members; made out of a Mountain Ash tree which fell in the June storm.
“I know everyone has that same expectation of how to look after each other and how to listen without judgement.”
The Australian of the Year award ceremony will be held on 25 January in Canberra, where the national Local Hero will be announced.
