03/09/2026
Today was incredible.
I actually can't believe how many people either turned up to help, or donated what they could, to a complete stranger, with next to zero notice and on a weekday.
What we all achieved was incredible. We cleared an incredible amount of trees and storm damage, removed old fences, repaired the stockyards and repaired or replaced 290 meters of fencing in some seriously hot conditions!!
I am sad that I didn't take more photos, so would love for anyone who took photos to add them to this post, and to tag themselves or anyone who I haven't been able to find.
I have the organisational skills of a rock, so we were super lucky that Rachael Hincksman from Beachmere Takeaway fed the entire lot of us with a platter of amazing food and drinks, and all out of her own pocket. This would have to have been hundreds of dollars worth, and for a slight woman, she was very firm in her decline of me insisting on paying 😂 We were very lucky to have you guys save the day ❤️
The strength of some of the people, especially the ladies was incredible, I actually feel guilty for how hard they worked. Reezy White, Lee Feakes, Harriet Buckley, Jess Bainbridge, Brooklyn Woods, Macayla Hansen, spent an entire day hauling trailer load after trailer load after trailer load of logs, rubbish and storm leftovers. I would say perhaps 30 or more loads, they just didnt stop, even through the heat of the middle of the day, those girls just did not stop. The tonnage of material they moved would be enormous.
Brett Bulfin and his fencing work was incredible. To have done the amount that he did in one day is astonishing. Removing an entire fence, then digging the holes, then concreting, setting and straining an entire length would take me three weeks if it was up to me, but he managed it all before lunch!
John Bernie Hudson, being a huge help to Glen with organising special help and upgrades around the home and connecting him with many different services, as well as bringing him back into society by joining him into some of the local social clubs. I think this will be absolutely huge for Glen to get back into the real world again.
Michelle Webber for helping Linda with the cleaning, and literally being the last soldier after we all left to go home!!
Les and Vivien Klemke, who were also some of the first to arrive and last to leave, with Les getting stuck into nearly every single difficult task we took on, and Vivien feeding the troops and managing the headquarters all day.
The many who either couldn't attend, or were limited by time who still donated materials, food, fencing materials and supplies to the troops, including Elizabeth Franklin, Shelly Knight, Renae Cooper and Cindy Rachelle
And above all, Linda and Hilary who have been supporting Glen for 30 years now, doing the work of an army until today, when a crew came together to lend a hand
Also, a special shout out to Hilary Gilbert and his tractor. Not only did he do the work of 10 men with it, the tractor suffered several trees falling on it, severe panel damage, severe mower deck damage, probably severe mental damage and was even lifted into the air by a hidden enormous lump of concrete.
Seeing Hilary arrive with the trailer, the tractor and all of the gear to get the job done was a god-send, and he really pushed everything to the limit to get the work finished, even at his own enormous financial expense.
My body is pain ( Action Body Massage will probably never have me back after me spending half an hour crying to them about my woes 😂) as I'm sure is the same for many of all of our helpers, and we even had an impressive sunburn!! But I am proud of the huge commitment everyone made to seeing the job through.
There is still so much to do, but today was a mammoth step in the right direction for Glen and the passion he has for his property and his animals, but possibly even equally impressive was seeing such a small community drop everything with no notice to help another member in their time of need.
Love this town ❤️
