Letter to the Editor: community praised for bushfire support

Dear News Of The Area,

I would like to personally thank several members of the local community for their support during the recent Nerong bushfires.

On Saturday 30 January, when things looked their most dire, we had multiple crews out defending the twin towns of Tea Gardens Hawks Nest and two RFS Community Liaison Officers from Taree and Tuncurry – Debra and Keeley – set up outside Tea Gardens Coles to keep the community as informed as possible.

Once it became clear that the valiant volunteer force of firies had probably not been fed for several hours, I asked Derryn Chadban at Tea Gardens Coles for help.

He and his staff set straight to preparing and donating a large quantity of food from the supermarket, which I was able to then ferry out to the pine plantation down Viney Creek Road, where the firies were catching their breath after an intense all-day firefight.

Tea Gardens’ Jack & Co Caltex servo was also kept open later, thanks to the foresight of manager Alex Sinclair (also a volunteer firie in the field that day), to ensure the many trucks on duty could refill before heading back the long distances they had travelled from all over the Mid Coast RFS District.

These volunteers, and the people who helped them, are all members of our awesome community.

I am happy to sing their praises, mainly because I know they are all too humble to do it themselves.

Councillor Thomas O’Keefe

MidCoast Council