St George Illawarra Dragons spread cheer on bushfire hit South Coast
NRL star Tariq Sims says an silence fell over the team bus when the Dragons drove through a fire-hit communities along the Princes Highway.
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As a bush fire was moments away from destroying his family home Warren Harper raced to collect a few personal belongings.
“We grabbed a few papers,” Mr Harper said. “And four boxes of Dragons tissues that I got for Christmas. My wife (Cheryl) says to me ‘you grabbed those but you forgot the china, she won’t let me live it down.”
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Mr Harper was back at Hanging Rock Sports Complex yesterday to watch the St George Illawarra squad less than a month after rushing to the Batemans Bay venue which had become a makeshift emergency venue. About 10,000 people crammed into the complex on December 30 as fire ripped apart nearby homes including Mr Harper’s at Malua Bay.
“We got an emergency call at 6am and had to evacuate with our (visiting) six grandkids and four children.” Mr Haper, an RFS volunteer, said. “It came out of the forest and hit us like a tone of bricks. It wouldn’t have mattered if you had four pumpers or an aircraft it wouldn’t have stopped it.
“I’ve never seen a fire as fierce. It seemed determined to take whatever was in its path. There was no controlling the fire.”
Seventy St George Illawarra players and staff put on a three hour coaching clinic at the same fields which were covered in caravans and filled with livestock as people sought refuge. About 500 people attended the clinic with the squad breaking into four groups to hit up different South Coast regions today.
St George Illawarra tough man Tariq Sims drove the bus which featured the likes of teammates Tyson Frizell, Ben Hunt and Zac Lomax. The Gerringong product said there was an eerie silence among the football players when they drove through the devastated regions along the Princes Highway.
Make-shift speed limit signs are being held by sandbags with a host of road sides burnt out and property equally devastated.
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“As soon as we hit Nowra it was like a different world,” Sims said. “You could sense the mode shift. “There was lots of devastation. You didn’t have to say anything. It was quite confronting.”
Mr Harper, who plans on rebuilding the home he built in 2003, said the work of the Dragons in the community was important.
“It means a great deal for the community,” Mr Harper said. “A lot of people are really suffering. A lot of people lost their homes but not just their homes but their stuff around it.
“These visits bring a focus for the people around here. It’s fantastic.”