A message to visitors from the people who live here
MADRA would like to share this important reminder with our wonderful and resilient community. If you have friends or family, or know someone that is planning to visit us this summer, be sure to share the below message with them to help us all have a safe, respectful and healing summer.
A PDF of this message can be found on our website
https://madrecovery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/MADRA-Visitors.pdf
Welcome to our Communities!
A message to visitors from the people who live here
Welcome to the communities which survived the devastating 2019-20 summer fires. We are also combatting COVID-19 impacts, which have made recovery much more difficult for us. We appreciate you may want to help, have questions or be interested in how we are doing. These community safety tips will help make your experience as good as it should be, while also helping us.
Please help us avoid COVID-19 adding to our problems:
Firstly, please ensure you adhere to all current COVID-19 restrictions
Don’t forget to use hand sanitiser on entry to local businesses.
We need to keep our communities safe. Regional towns have limited health resources.
Support our recovery from the bushfires
As we re-establish normality, run our businesses, look after our families and support our community, we want you to enjoy your visit and return, but please be aware we have had a traumatic and exhausting year with loss of income, property, and community life. The fires were a terrible experience for our communities. Recovery takes years and many people still struggle with trauma, grief and exhaustion even though they are getting on with life.
Please consider the following:
Do visit our sights, parks, reserves, lookouts, beaches and mountains. We are proud of our community’s natural beauty - it is why we live here. Some places are still under repair or regeneration, so please follow directions and signs, both for your own safety, and to sustain the environment.
We encourage kindness as thoughtless comments can be distressing, but thoughtful comments are a great support. Please don’t ask people if they were in the fire, or lost their house, property or loved ones.
Please respect people’s privacy and dignity, and please don’t drive around looking at and taking photographs of damaged properties.
Your visit will contribute to our recovery as you visit our attractions, buy local products, stay locally, and visit our galleries, shops and businesses.
Further information about our district is available at the Shire Information Counter in Maurice Avenue.
We look forward to you having a great stay.
Thanks,
MADRA