Brushgrove lad and his tinnie saves the day with fuel, medication and electricity

A 19-year-old saved lives in the small community of Brushgrove, creating ingenious ways to power mobiles and fridges. But his talents didn’t stop there.

A young cabinet maker, Allan O’Sullivan, living in the tiny country village of Brushgrove found incredible ways to assist his 200 strong community, saving lives during the process.

Keeping with his routine Mr O’Sullivan went to work in South Grafton on Monday morning but soon realised it wasn’t going to be an ordinary day.

He collected fuel and supplies and quickly returned home to Brushgrove.

The community there received evacuation orders on Monday but Allan said the notifications were too late.

“Last year the flood took 7 hours, but this year it rose in just a couple of hours and came roaring up,” he said.

The power cut off, the local phone box flooded and he knew people were desperate to let family and friends know they were OK.

So on Tuesday he got in his tinnie and visited neighbours collecting mobile phones.

Back at home he and his father charged them with jumper leads hooked up to a car battery. After returning the phones he hooked up a fridge to a 2 stroke generator so people could store food.

He then collected jerry cans and fuel money for people who needed fuel and gave them to the SES.

He finished Tuesday off by delivering the full jerry cans back to their owners.

Mr O'Sullivan senior and junior's mobile phone charging invention through an old jeep's battery, in Brushgrove in the 2022 floods.

On Wednesday, having seen people desperate for their medication, including an elderly woman taking half her meds, he set off in the tinnie to collect scripts.

Again he worked with the SES members, who then took the scripts to Grafton and returned the medication to him to deliver. But his good deeds didn’t stop there as he continued to help those most in need.

“I helped a young pregnant lady with milk for her children and there were some old people with oxygen bottles which were running low so we used the generator to hook them up.”

Brushgrove doesn’t have its own SES so was supported by six South Grafton members.

Unfortunately as the clean up began Mr O’Sullivan senior had a fall and is having his leg X-rayed. Mr O’Sullivan junior will continue the clean up.

“The smell is like sewerage and a completely rotten smell,” he said.

The O’Sullivans aren’t insured for floods as they couldn’t afford the extra cost added onto their house insurance.