Community partnership to help flood recovery Four community-based organisations are banding together to help land managers across the Queensland Murray-Darling Basin as they start the long road to recovery.
Queensland Murray-Darling Committee (QMDC) Chief Executive Officer Geoff Penton said the devastating floods might still be in force across much of the Maranoa-Balonne, Border Rivers, Darling Downs and South West but volunteers from QMDC, Landcare, Conservation Volunteers Australia, and importantly, Victoria’s BlazeAid were ready to help rural residents start the repair process.
“As everyone is aware, the region is in the grip of a major natural disaster and as community-driven and community-based organisations, we are all fully committed to flood recovery efforts,” Mr Penton said.
“The Basin Flood Recovery volunteer crews started work today, helping farmers on the Darling Downs but this effort will extend further into the Basin as more volunteers arrive, waters recede and access to impacted areas improves.
“This is a real team effort with volunteers from local communities already joining those from QMDC, Landcare Conservation Volunteers Australia and BlazeAid.”
BlazeAid Founder Kevin Butler said the organisation’s volunteers were honoured to be able to help and return the favours that many Queenslanders did for Victorian farmers after the Black Saturday fires. Conservation Volunteers Australia Regional Manager Mark Dwyer said the organisation had put together an on-ground practical response program.
“Conservation Volunteers will do its bit to aid those in this time of need in partnership with QMDC,” Mr Dwyer said.
Mr Penton said rural land managers across the region faced a mammoth repair task with the loss of essential infrastructure, including fences.
“QMDC staff and Landcare coordinators started calling land managers last week to assess their needs so we could ensure a smooth, effective relief effort,” he said.
“Initially, these extraordinarily generous Victorian volunteers will help landholders around Toowoomba, Highfields and Crows Nest but as more of their colleagues travel to Queensland and they are joined by local volunteers, Conservation Volunteers’ crews and QMDC and Landcare members, their area of operation will expand both south and west.” Mr Penton said while the volunteers would carry out work across the Basin, the timing would be determined by access, the availability of materials and landholder needs.
“Parts of the region are still underwater and even when those waters recede, we are going to have to wait for roads to re-open and paddocks to dry out before we can safely send these teams in,” he said.
If you would like to volunteer to help QMDC, BlazeAid, Conservation Volunteers and Landcare in these efforts, please contact QMDC on 07 4637 6200 (Toowoomba), 07 4620 4600 (Roma) or 07 4671 7900 (Goondiwindi).
If you would to find out what sort of assistance these organisations can provide, please contact QMDC or your local Landcare coordinator. More information on BlazeAid can be found at www.blazeaid.com, Conservation Volunteers www.cva.org.au and QMDC has a webpage with links to various disaster information sites, visit www.qmdc.org.au.
