Huge numbers of grey nomads are volunteering their time and skills to help the drought relief effort in inland Australia.
The BlazeAid disaster relief group says the response to its call to arms to battle the effects of the ‘big dry’ had been overwhelming.
“We’ve got 30 volunteers at the moment, and I’ve got another 25 on the books that are coming in the next fortnight, said BlazeAid’s Barry Thomas who is co-ordinating the relief effort at Richmond, in north west Queensland. “They’re mostly grey nomads, and they’re fixing houses, sheds and cattle yards.”
Charlie Corser is one of them. He told the ABC that he had spent most of his retirement helping other’s recover when Mother Nature strikes.
“Well I had been on another camp down in the Grampians, we’ve been to Western Australia for the floods, we were in New South Wales at the floods there as well,” he said. “I just like to keep busy, like most old people.”
Demelza Wells lives on Lonsdale Station, along with her partner and their two children. She told the ABC the help had been incredible.
“I’ve got two husband and wife teams here, the men are outside helping build the house yard and the ladies are painting some rooms inside, and they’ve done four rooms so far,” she said. “It’s more than I imagined we would get done in this short amount of time.”
She says the volunteers are also great company for her young family who lead a solitary life out on the remote station.
“They had dinner in the house with us last night,” Mrs Wells told the ABC. “And after dinner, they were playing on the kitchen floor with my 12 month old, Declan, and it was like he had an extra two sets of grandparents.”
BlazeAid volunteers generally travel out to stations in the region in groups of four or six.
BlazeAid, which traditionally helps clean up after floods and fires, has recently changed its constitution to allow drought relief work to continue into the future.
We have volunteered for blaze aid before and would do it again. However, we are unemployed and not retired and if we miss an appointment with the JSA we would lose the dole. I don’t think the government knows the value of volunteers and grey nomads, they just see us as old, useless bludgers who cost too much to support and wish we would just die.
A new BlazeAid base-camp is being established at Julia Creek. If you want to know more, ring Brian, the co-ordinator on 0407 066-560 or check out the blazeaid.com
We have been travelling Australia just over 8 yrs & prefer to help people on the land – volunteering or working for short periods – it gives us a chance to ‘live the life’ in the outback and gives us a sense of satisfaction if we can assist people no matter what the work is…more nomads give it a go its worth it!
We have volunteered with Outback Links (Frontier Services) in the past and it was a wonderful experience on outback Queensland stations. The families are so grateful for any help you can give them and you get to see and stay in places you would never normally see, and experience a different lifestyle. We would be happy to volunteer again if we are in the right place at the right time.
My husband and I helped rebuild fences in April last year at Dululu QLD after flood damage. Blaze Aid is a wonderful organisation and we thoroughly enjoyed the few days we spent there.
My motorhome would not handle dirt roads too well and there is the possible difficulty in that I have 2 Whippets that travel with me but we do volunteer as often as we can at Vinnies, I would love to do some work with Blazeaid as well. Am on a house sit at present.
We work with Blazaid in Murgon and Mulgowie last year it was a great experience meeting and helping out farmers that need help, if the chance comes up again in Qld, we’ll look into doing it again.