Gold Coast community bands together to battle cyclone Alfred aftermath
In the wake of a crisis is when humanity often shows its true colours. And in the days following ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, the Gold Coast community has delivered.
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In the wake of a crisis is when humanity often shows its true colours.
And in the days following ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, the Gold Coast community has delivered.
The wild weather event wreaked havoc across parts of the city with many trapped in their homes or without power, still, days on.
But a special few from across all areas the community have stepped up in whatever way they can – all in the spirit of helping thy neighbour.
FIRE BRIGADE OPENS DOORS
A rural fire brigade opened up their doors to offer free food, showers, charging stations and washing machines to residents, despite their own station being flooded days earlier.
The Guanaba Rural Fire Brigade has been help with recovery efforts in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred not just across the Gold Coast but also on home turf, with the brigade station open to local residents without power.
First officer Brendan Gold said they opened the station because that’s just what the brigade does.
“That’s the community spirit we’ve got here in the valley,” he said. “We help the residents out and it’s just good.”
The station had flooded earlier in the week but crews came through Tuesday to clean it up in time for the community.
“We’ve got power, water, hot showers and washing machines so we just opened it up for the community to charge their devices, wash their clothes, have showers because obviously they’ve got no power in the area,” he said.
Food packs and a sausage sizzle were available Wednesday evening.
The station has been open 4pm to 8pm during the week and will be open all day over the weekend until the power comes back on.
As of Thursday 9am, 274 people were impacted by power outages with a total of 508 people impacted in Guanaba, Maudsland, Tamborine Mountain and Wongawallan.
Mr Gold said people in the community were happy to see the power at the station.
“There’s nothing out here and people are still stuck,” he said.
“You can’t get in and out of the streets up the road so we’re trying to deliver water to them on food and keep the community spirit going.”
HAIR’S TO YOU
A Burleigh hair salon of two decades and two generations opened its doors to those impacted by ex-cyclone Alfred.
Frontline for Hair at Treetops has been offering free hair washes for those caught without hot water and power since Monday.
Owner Mitch Gilmore said he got the idea to offer the free service when his wife said all she wanted to do was, “wash her hair” after days without power at their Reedy Creek home.
“People have been really appreciative of it,” he said.
“We’ve had a really good response and I think we will keep it going tomorrow as well. The only problem we realised was that a lot of people impacted also have no phone service or internet access.”
The second generation salon owner said during this period he believed it was the biggest companies who have capitalised, so it was important to “support local”.
“That’s not just supporting local businesses, that’s supporting each other and looking after each other,” he said.
“As much as this (period) has hurt me financially, I will bounce back. I went through Covid and bounced back from that. So, you know, a few free hair washers here and there - that’s not gonna bankrupt me.”
The Frontline for Hair owner added: “We’re not here to be millionaires. We’re here to support the locals and put food on the table for our children. We’ve been here for a while, so we’re supported by the locals, and we support the locals in turn.”
TIP TOP FROM TIP TOP TREE
One Tallebudgera Valley family were stuck at home for three days – trapped by huge trees fallen across the only road in and out.
“Massive thank you to Ryan King from Tip Top Tree Services Gold Coast,” the resident posted to her community Facebook page.
“Ryan’s wife, Emily, saw my post in a local group asking for a lift to the shops and asked Ryan if he could come and help us. We’ve never met Emily or Ryan before.
“He drove all the way from Southport on Sunday and spent four to five hours clearing trees from the road in the pouring rain, free of charge. He has given road access to half a dozen properties up here.”
The Bulletin called Mr King, who didn’t want any promotion and said he was just doing his part.
“I was just following the two greatest commandments in life,” he said.
“To love God and to love your neighbour as you would like to be loved. Simple as that. I was doing it as a goodwill for people who are actually in an emergency the SES couldn’t yet get to.
BEACH RECOVERY
Lucy Ivers with partner Andy Beecroft and three-year-old daughter Teddy Ivers Beecroft made it their mission to help clean up the city’s beaches.
The family of three collected debris and plastic washed ashore by the huge swell which pounded the coastline.
“We just spent time as a family collecting all the junk we could,” Ms Ivers said.
“We went a second time after Alfred and thought this is very therapeutic, and there’s so much (rubbish) still there. So we just decided to go back again the next day and thought we’d reach out to people within the community as a nice way to interact with others.”
Having posted a message to her local Facebook community page, more than a dozen others jumped on board joining the family in group rubbish collection along Burleigh Beach.
“At one point I looked around and just thought, ‘wow’,” Ms Ivers said.
“It was just so nice because we were just gonna go do it by ourselves and we thought maybe a few others would join, but when I looked around there were about 14 of us.
“It was a nice way of us covering more ground, but also for us to get to meet our neighbours.”
Lollipop sticks and small plastics from kids beach toys were some of the worst culprits littering the shoreline.
JACKS OF ALL TRADES
Miami distillery Granddad Jack’s has gone above and beyond.
Three generations of family, along with valued staff, have been helping members of the community clear up their properties and remove any debris in their “big a-- truck”.
Marketing manager and family member Jessica Hartley said the team were proud to continue the real granddad Jack’s legacy.
“That’s what Granddad Jack was all about,” she said.
“His life values were about supporting the community, and giving back where you can. So even when business is tough, we can give back some time and labour.”
The team put a post in their local community Facebook page asking anyone who needed a helping hand to reach on out.
“There’s a lot of people that might not be high on the priority list for SES that need help clearing driveways, backyards and things like that,” Ms Hartley said.
“Before the cyclone we put out filtered water in the driveway, for anyone to fill up bottles with because a lot of people don’t have the money to go and buy the filtered water from the stores, and then it was also sold out.”
Ms Hartley said the response had been overwhelming.
“There’s lot of elderly people in need of a hand, or a lot of people with kids and families that just can’t tackle their driveways,” she said.
“Today we’ve done six or seven homes filled up three loads in the truck, broken a few chainsaws – we’re just honestly trying to get out there and help whoever we can, whether it’s a backyard or a driveway, or a path blocked by a big tree.”
MOWING THROUGH JOBS
A small disability support group have banded together to clean up.
The boys from WB Supports hit Miami streets throughout the week, mowing lawns free of charge for those in need.
Support worker Winiata (Wini) Barrett said the boys have loved helping out the community.
“They’ve really enjoyed it,” he said.
“We’ve had people reach out and ask if we can help out in particular spots, and we’ve got a couple more requests for a few addresses tomorrow.”
Mr Barrett said the aim of the group was to get the boys involved in “mainstream activities” within the community.
“We’re also about raising awareness for with people with disabilities, while making our participants feel valued,” he said.
“We mow a few lawns every now and again, and we just thought this week we’ll change it up when we’ve got the boys and just go and do random lawns, make more noise and just get involved.”
SURF CLUB HEROES
On the eve of the cyclone Currumbin Beach Vikings club played host to 60 trainee police recruits as a base to organise door knocking efforts, to make sure residents had an evacuation plan in place and to conduct safety and welfare checks.
Surf Club CEO Michael Sullivan said “it was great to be able to offer the police that resource in their time of need and the hour the community needed as well.”
The area surrounding Currumbin was hard hit by power outages and the club had two members whose houses were significantly damaged by falling trees. Vikings opened its doors in the subsequent days offering hot showers, a place to charge electronics and warm meals to affected residents.
“There are a lot of members that we’ve had come through over the last couple of days and used the facility; that haven’t had power for a long time, that haven’t been able to have a hot shower, the power outages that have been in Currumbin and Currumbin Waters have had a big effect on residents, so for them to be able to come to a facility where they know they can grab something to eat, have a hot shower and just be able to resume life somewhat back to normality has been a big.
“The venue is a place where people can come back together. The events of the past week, just having that community ethos and just having a place where the people can get back together is really important in times like this.
“That’s something we strive to provide as part of our vision and part of who we are, so we look forward to getting back to that community hub that we like to be.”
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Originally published as Gold Coast community bands together to battle cyclone Alfred aftermath
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