BEFORE Cyclone Alfred had even finished his destruction the Chainsaw Warriors had already sprung into action.
The dedicated members, who supported so many in the community following the tornado, once again showed what community recovery looks like.
“Our goal is to empower the community to be response able and to put unity back in community,” team leader, Guy Johnstone said.
Over 70 jobs were logged with the Chainsaw Warriors, and more were expected to come in at the time of print.
“The tornado was more damaging in specific areas. This time it has been less big timbers, but it’s over a far greater area. It doesn’t appear any part of the mountain has been excluded,” Guy explained.
Around 46 volunteers came out on the first Saturday, consisting of three teams to tackle some huge jobs.
The Chainsaw Warriors aim now is to train up as many locals as possible to use chainsaws which will enable them to help in their own streets in the future.
They are particularly encouraging young people to step up and get trained.
Jaki Rigg and her daughter, Eden, are two of the first three people to be trained by Guy.
The mother and daughter came out with the Chainsaw Warriors, expecting to be dragging trees but were excited when Guy suggested they learn to use a chainsaw.
“It’s a handy skill to know,” Eden said.
“I thought it would be fun and wanted to help the community. Often you are stuck at home just doing stuff for yourself, but helping the community resets you.”
“It was a little bit scary at the start; I thought ‘this thing can kill me’.”
Jaki agreed: “It’s taken the fear out of it and watching Eden do it I can see how capable and adaptable she is.”
She beamed as she described the strong community spirit within the Chainsaw Warriors.
Arran Hassell, who has been helping coordinate volunteers, praised the group as well as the many other individuals who have quietly helped out by checking on neighbours, cooking someone a meal, filling sandbags or helping get a generator up and running.
“It epitomises the best part of a community, and that is community members helping other community members in a time of need.
“If we didn’t have all the volunteers, there would potentially have been gaps in the support to the community. The SES, RFS and the police would have done their best, but I think there would have been gaps in what could have been done.”
“The amount of people who have told me they have got closer to a neighbour or met people they didn’t know in the community.”
“Our community is stronger for having gone through the cyclone. You don’t wish a natural disaster on anyone, but I do think we are stronger as a result.”
Arran said residents responded in a more coherent manner with Alfred than following the tornado because better links have been established between all the people who can offer different things in the community.
However, he said both the community and Scenic Rim Regional Council still have things we need to learn out of this event, from individual preparedness of homes through to the council ensuring all their facilities are as prepared as they can be for the next natural disaster.
“Any response and recovery has to be a partnership between council and community,” Arran said.
Guy expressed his disappointment that, despite working with the council for six months, he felt some council staff had learnt little from the tornado.
He said some council staff refused to communicate with the Chainsaw Warriors as to which jobs were being done by Disaster Relief Australia (DRA), which forced them to make the decision to step down until DRA had completed their work.
He added that the councillors had all done an incredible job, but he felt councillors were copping it due to what he described as the incompetence of some staff.
Once again, the Chainsaw Warriors were supported by the Tamborine Mountain Lions Club who kept them fuelled with food and raised money to put petrol in the chainsaws.
James Neilsen has also assisted with sharpening and servicing chainsaws.
This group of volunteers will continue working towards improving community disaster preparedness to ensure if and when another disaster hits, Tamborine Mountain will be ready.
