MADRA News - 30 March 2023
Meeting with East Gippsland Shire
The MADRA committee has been invited to meet this week with East Gippsland Shire Council CEO Anthony Basford, Place and Community General Manager Stuart McConnell and Emergency Management Manager Kath Smith to discuss our recovery efforts and emergency management planning and preparedness. We will use the opportunity to discuss the barriers to rebuilding, the short-term modular housing program, funding for ongoing fuel management and upgrades to communications and community infrastructure as key issues in our recovery. We will report to you on the results of the consultations in the next MADRA News.
East Gippsland Timber Milling Project
The East Gippsland Timber Milling Project (EGTMP) provides machinery and labour to mill fallen timber for people in East Gippsland who have been heavily affected by the fires at no cost to them.
The project uses fallen timber on private property resulting from the 2019/20 fires and produces useable timber for farmers needing to rebuild fencing and stockyards, as well as for those who have lost their homes to use in their building projects. In addition to the benefits of the supply of timber, the project produces zero waste leaving no impact on the property and helps farmers to clear up fallen timber.
This community-led project has been operating in Sarsfield since 2021 and more recently in Bruthen, Buchan and Goongerah. The project team has since approached us to expand the program to the Mallacoota District. Some information sessions to assess the viability of expanding to the Mallacoota area took place last year with an overwhelming expression of interest from both property owners wanting to donate timber and recipients in need.
This project is governed by local community organisations, and representatives of the Lions Clubs and Rotary Clubs have formed an Incorporated Committee of Management to oversee the project development and governance.
Rotary donated the first two Lucas Mills and the Lions Club has funded the purchase of two vehicles, four trailers, two skid steers, chainsaws and equipment to assist in the milling operation. A third mill has been purchased for the operations in Mallacoota and surrounds and the project is also looking to purchase a mobile kiln to enable those needing timber for their rebuild projects to have the timber dried and certified for building in a swift time frame.
Six previously unemployed East Gippslanders have now been employed, trained and mentored by East Gippsland TAFE in the use of the Lucas Mill, and all have achieved accreditation in Forestry Management. A further two young people, from Mallacoota, have been selected to undertake this training to operate the mill for our district and develop it as a business to contract back to the project.
MADRA was approached last year to assist in operational funding for the project to see it up and running here. We have committed a modest amount of funding and have been lobbying hard for the support of various state and local government funding bodies and philanthropic organisations to contribute to what is a unique project that ticks so many boxes for those most heavily impacted by the fires in our community.
The project has at least 18 months of work ahead of them here in the Mallacoota District and is still seeking operational funding, so all ideas from our members are welcome. We hope to bring you more news about this project soon.
Winter ‘Sunday in the Soup’ sessions
Once the hectic nature of the busy tourist season has passed and koalas are back to walking down Maurice Ave, MADRA would like to invite the community to join them monthly throughout winter to gather around a fire and share in some soup and conversation.
We acknowledge that sometimes our work on the committee is out of sight and would like to share informally what we are working on and give you the opportunity to ask questions, make suggestions and get to know who we are and what we are doing for the community.
We will kick off in May, stay tuned for more details.
Thanks,
MADRA