Rotary Club of Pinjarra Bushfire Appeal
Posted by Rob Davis
The Beginning
Our Board met within days of the fires beginning, and made the decision to establish a fund to provide essential support, with the aim of providing this immediately rather than having to wait for bureaucratic processes before anything could be done. The Rotary Club of Pinjarra is proud to have started the fund with the commitment of $20 000.
Our guiding principles for the fund are:
- To ensure that all donations received are spent in accordance with the stated intent.
- To ensure that all funds donated are delivered in full to the stated objectives.
- To ensure that funds are distributed at the earliest practical time.
- To ensure, where possible, that funds are not allocated to duplicate other charitable endeavours.
The Club Board has managed the appeal, with input from experienced others and two external trustees. All donations have been, and are still being used for the people in need - we are not using any of the funds for any other purpose
We chose to have a two pronged focus based on the knowledge and advice received: Trauma Counselling and Animal Welfare.
Trauma Counselling
Through our links with GP Down South, and the Peel Mobile Health Service, we have engaged counsellors to work with all people across the fire zone for three days a week – this has been ongoing since the disaster occurred.
Funding for Trauma Counselling has, and still comes from donations – particularly from Rotarians and Rotary clubs throughout Australia. As the first response, we allocated $30 000 to Trauma Counselling to cover the costs through to 30th June 2016. This was supplemented by an additional donation of $35 000 from Bendigo Bank.
Feedback from previous bushfire recovery efforts, in New South Wales and Victoria, indicated that trauma counselling could be required for a much longer time period. In consultation with GP Down South we allocated another $96 490 as a contingency towards this purpose for twelve months to July 2017. (A payment to provide for services in the period July to December 2016 has been made recently).
The total allocated to Trauma Counselling is now $161 490.
Animal Welfare
Fodder
Obtaining sufficient supplies has been a challenge, particularly with a shortage in the immediate area. We were fortunate to have a club member with expertise in procuring and exporting hay who used his contacts to obtain a guaranteed supply of fodder to be brought down from the Pilbara. This involved considerable purchasing and transport costs, and has taken a large portion (approx. $260 000) of the donated funds.
The provision of hay supplies was done on an ordering basis, and for fire affected farmers only. We obtained Rhodes Grass hay from the Rio Tinto farmlands and arranged transportation to the properties. This was advertised through the respective shires and orders taken by one of our members.
Since our first delivery of approximately 70 tonnes (102 bales) on Labour Day (6th March, 2016), another 1100 tonnes (1700 bales) have been delivered.
Fencing
We have not made a financial commitment to the provision of new fences, with the thinking that this will probably be covered by others (insurance, Blaze Aid, Lord Mayor’s Distress Relief Fund). Our commitment to fencing has been restricted to organising for damaged fences to be removed in readiness for replacement.
Teams have gone out on several occasions to pull out the burnt fences and roll up the damaged wire. With 280 volunteers, we have worked on 25 properties in the Yarloop, Harvey and Waroona areas. At the same time, 328 volunteers have made up teams out of Bunbury, led by the Rotary Club of South Bunbury to work on 34 properties.
The commitment of so many people who have joined us for this work – particularly all the Rotarians from the South West and from the Perth area - has been absolutely fantastic. On one weekend alone we had 112 volunteers on the Saturday, followed up by 94 on the Sunday.
Fundraising
The generosity of people around the country is amazing. Support from the public at large has come from many and varied sources; fund raising efforts at pubs, proceeds from stallion servicing auctions, concert events, and from many individuals. Rotary clubs Australia wide have been generous supporters; we have received donations from 70 Rotary Clubs from across Australia, totalling about $320 000, with another $40 000 from other arms of Rotary in Australia.
We have been assisted in receiving donations by the Rotary Club of Rockingham. This club has Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status and was able to accept donations from individuals and organisations requiring receipts for taxation purposes.
What have we done with all this money?
Our budgeted allocations, as of the end of June (and this has changed since then), are
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Donations
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$459,713.86
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Expenses
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$329,403.36
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GP Down South, Hay purchases,
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Income
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$60,028.95
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Farmers contributions for hay
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Committed Funds
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$48,245.00*
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Trauma Counselling to 30.06.2017
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Approx. Available Balance
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$142,094.45
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- This sum represents funds which will be applied to the provision of trauma counselling in the period 1st January -30th June, 2017
What’s left to do?
So far we have only used the donated funds for the two stated purposes. If and when these are satisfied, we will look at some avenues to help those in need in other areas. As part of our plan, we will continue to avoid overlapping with other support agencies.
In consultation with the Shire of Harvey and WA Farmers Federation, and including the Harvey Lions Club, we commenced “Breakfast in the Paddock” mornings in May – aimed at getting the farmers and others together in a familiar situation to encourage them to talk through their issues with each other. This has been a huge success, with many people joining in at Waroona and Harvey. The breakfasts are now being repeated monthly and are managed locally with some fantastic sponsorship from businesses and other service organisations.
The Appeal will formally close on 31st August 2016
Rob Davis, President Rotary Club of Pinjarra, 2015-16
