Bree Wadey: Chiropractor rallies volunteers to treat CFA, bushfire survivors

After watching fires tear through East Gippsland, local Bree Wadey was determined to give back to those who had lost everything and the volunteers who fought to save it. And she convinced about 50 other health professionals to join.

Bree Wadey is a Shine Awards nominee for her work volunteering after the East Gippsland bushfires.

WHEN fires devastated East Gippsland last summer, Bree Wadey didn’t have “a whole lot of muscle” to help put them out, but was determined to give back what she could to those that did.

The now 26-year-old chiropractor had just finished her degree and was living in Melbourne when she watched the blaze tear through the surrounds of her hometown of Bairnsdale.

Rallying together about 50 chiropractors, myotherapists and reflexologists, Bree led a team of health professionals across fire-hit towns of Buchan, Swifts Creek, Orbost and Bairnsdale offering free treatments and relaxation.

Bree Wadey and some of her fellow volunteers at the DELWP air base.

“A lot of the time we were there just to be present, even if it was a simple shoulder massage,” Bree said.

“I just wanted to be there and listen to them, and if they wanted to have a cry, have a cry. It was more of a stress outlet for the volunteers.”

Bree and her team of volunteers treated hundreds of people over the four days they were there, including CFA crews, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning volunteers at the local air base and residents who had lost everything.

“I don’t necessarily have a whole lot of muscle to be able to go out and put out fires or do anything like that, but I have these skills that I have learnt over five or six years studying, I figured why don’t I just do that,” she said.

“My boss said I think you will only need one or two treatment tables. We ended up with 50 and we needed more.”

Bree now works as a chiropractor in Bairnsdale and although coronavirus disrupted her plans to organise more outreach, she says the “nerve-racking” experience of co-ordinating such an effort at just 25-years-old has given her the confidence to execute something similar again.

“I think bringing young people to rural communities is really important,” she said, of her move back to Bairnsdale. “Getting young people back here to work and grow the community is really important.”

Bree is a nominee in The Weekly Times Shine Awards with Harvey Norman, celebrating the achievements of rural women across Australia.

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