Our History

MADRA's Beginnings

In the immediate aftermath of the fires, a ‘Thinking Group’ was formed which was led by a range of community minded people who had the foresight to start the collection of ideas and skills in community-led recovery. They met with Steve Pascoe, a Disaster Recovery Mentor (who had been through the Strathewen fires from Black Saturday in 2009), to help plot out the process of how to implement a community-led recovery program for Mallacoota. On Wednesday 15 January 2020, a large group of representatives from Mallacoota’s community organisations were invited to attend a meeting to discuss a way forward. This helped to disseminate information to a larger group of people. The purpose of the meeting was simply to gauge if the community felt the concept being developed was heading in the right direction. The proposal was endorsed by community representatives and the Thinking Group was invited to flesh out a process for establishing a recovery association.

Over the following three weeks, the core Thinking Group, together with other interested locals, worked on a draft constitution and a vision and purposes statement. Work also commenced with EGSC to initiate an election process adhering to Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) guidelines. This work was presented to a larger representative group at the Mudbrick Pavilion, and then on 4 February 2020, the proposal was put to all interested locals at a town meeting at the Golf Club, which an estimated 500-plus people attended. The proposal was overwhelmingly endorsed, and the Mallacoota and District Recovery Association (MADRA) began.

The VEC managed the election process for the original MADRA Committee - the first of its kind in Victoria. Nominations for MADRA committee members were sought by 16 April 2020. A total of 44 local candidates stood for election. Voting by postal vote closed on 20 May, and the results of the election were announced on 21 May 2020. A high voting response rate of 88 per cent was recorded. On 9 June 2020, the newly formed MADRA committee elected its office bearers (see MADRA Committee #1, below). Since then, an Annual General Meeting has been held every year to elect each new MADRA committee.

MADRA's early days: MADRA Committee members, members of the Thinking Group and representatives of Bushfire Recovery Victoria and the East Gippsland Shire Council at a MADRA induction session in June 2020.

Read more about MADRA’s beginnings:

Click HERE to download the Background section of MADRA’s Recovery Plan, which includes ‘A Potted History of MADRA’

Past and present MADRA committee members. L to R: Jenny Lloyd, MADRA 1 Deputy Chair; Paul Preston, MADRA 2 Chair; David Appleton, MADRA 1 Chair; Carol Hopkins, current Chair; Graham Dempster, MADRA 1 & 2 Treasurer; Ken Grime, MADRA 3 Treasurer. Photo: Mary O'Malley

  • Chair: Carol Hopkins

    Deputy Chair: Phil Piper

    Secretary: Ash Turner

    Treasurer: Peter Giddings

  • Chair: Carol Hopkins

    Deputy Chair: Phil Piper

    Secretary: Ash Turner

    Treasurer: Peter Giddings

    General members:

    Christy Bryar, Justin Hede, Pip Masters

  • Chair: Carol Hopkins

    Deputy Chair: Phil Piper

    Secretary: Rosy Morton

    Treasurer: Ken Grime

    General members:

    Sue Brown, Christy Bryar, Peter Giddings, Jenny Mason, Jeanette Obri, Ash Turner, Jo Wohler

    Lea Davis also served as a general committee member for a period of time.

  • Chair: Paul Preston

    Deputy Chair: Peter Hancock

    Secretary: Carol Hopkins

    Treasurer: Graham Dempster

    General members:

    Kate Cowden, Ken Grime, Rosy Morton, Jeanette Obri, Phil Piper, Bryce Watts-Parker

    Gary Proctor and Reiner Hurst also served as general committee members for a period of time.

  • Chair: Dr David Appleton

    Deputy Chair: Jenny Lloyd

    Secretary: Trindi Suratman

    Treasurer: Graham Dempster

    General members: Jude Benton, Tanya de Geus, Brodie Gaudion, Peter Hancock, Paul Preston, Mark Tregellas, Kerri Warren, Bryce Watts-Parker

  • Maggie Langdon 2022 - June 2025

    Maggie Langdon/Sabine Amos 2021

    Amy Preston - until end December 2020

At MADRA’s popular ‘Sunday in the Soup’ gatherings in 2023, committee members proved how multi-talented they are by bringing along a variety of delicious homemade soups.

Above left: Meeting with the Commissioner of Emergency Management Victoria Andrew Crisp with representatives from agencies and the Fuel Management Working Group in Mallacoota in July 2023; Above right: MADRA Chair Carol Hopkins talks to Senator Tony Sheldon in July 2024; Below left: MADRA committees old and new gather and Thinking Group members, Christmas 2024; Below right: The RediCommunities Workshop in June 2023.

Our Structure

MADRA is an incorporated association and a Public Benevolent Institution (PBI) registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). We also have Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status which enables donors to claim a tax deduction through the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Our Stakeholders

A stakeholder is either an individual, group or organisation who is impacted by, or has an interest in, the outcome of a project or process.

Our major disaster recovery stakeholder groups are:

  • community members including residents, property owners and visitors,

  • our recovery delivery partners, and

  • our recovery funding partners.

There is some crossover between our funding and delivery partners.

Our comprehensive stakeholder analysis in in our Recovery Plan (see Appendix B).

MADRA mentioned in Parliament, November 2023

After representatives of MADRA met with the Minister for Emergency Services Jaclyn Symes and Tom McIntosh MP in Mallacoota in 2023, Tom McIntosh raised a member's statement in Parliament mentioning MADRA and other local organisations.

View the short segment (1:38 min) on video here:

I joined Minister Symes in Mallacoota, where we met with Tracey, the leader of the CFA brigade, and where we met with MADRA, the Mallacoota and District Recovery Association, to hear about the work they have done post fires and ongoing for their community. We saw the new skate park; the new container deposit collection facility, which I am told filled a 20-foot container in its first week; the Wilderness Collective and the incredible co-working space that they have there; and Mallacoota Abalone, which is the biggest employer in town and after the fires was rebuilt thanks to support from the state government.

Tom McIntosh MP