All questions can be posted here in the comments section for guaranteed response.

2010 didn’t exactly end on a high note for everyone in Theodore.

The biggest flood on record has devastated many homes, businesses and lives. It’s safe to say no one in our community has been left untouched.

However, in true Theodore style we are keen to pick up the pieces and bring that vibrancy in our community we all loved back.

A Theodore Recovery Trust Appeal was setup in the early days after offers of help and donations were flooding in (excuse the pun!).

The response has been overwhelming and we are pleased to announce that we are using that Trust Fund money for a Theodore Voucher system.

Vouchers can be used at any Theodore business and aim to assist those feeling impacts of the floods and also to assist in mobilising the local economy.

Vouchers are $50 in denomination and are available to all Theodore residents. Vouchers are distributed upon completion of the application form, which is on the reverse of this letter.

Applications are made per household and are available to:

-       1 per adult and 1 per dependant child.

-       1 if your home was inundated. (As per the interagency and BSC database)

-       1 if you have experienced a loss of income as a direct result of the flood.

Theodore Vouchers are now ready to be distributed in Theodore to all residents. Application forms  will be posted out Monday and it will also be able to be downloaded here – GD11001_Theodore_Application_A4-2.

Please complete the application form and either drop into the Theodore Police Station or post to Theodore Police Station PO Box 25, Theodore Q 4719.

All applications will be processed in 24 hours and vouchers are available for collection after that at the Police Station during station hours. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 9am to 1pm.

We encourage you to complete the form and participate in this program as it not only benefits you but also the entire community by getting money circulating through our economy and local businesses again. Encourage your friends and neighbours to participate also.

Any questions please place in the comments section below.

Thankyou,

The Board of Trustees

Fleur Anderson, Keith Shoecraft, Melinda Ball and Claire Breckenridge

Theodore Recovery Appeal Trust.

Firstly is the Theodore Flood Appeal.

This is open to all Theodore residents (in and out of town). Residents can apply and collect ‘Theodore vouchers’ that can be used in any participating local business.

The Theodore vouchers are $50 each and are available for the following people fitting into the following 4 categories:

1. Resident of Theodore and use Theodore as your business/family centre.

2. You have a family that resides with you and are school age or under.

3. Your home was inundated during the floods.

4. You have experienced a loss of income as a direct result of the floods (proof may be required).

A $50 voucher is available to you for each categoy that you qualify. For example A family that lives in town that has had their home inundated would be eligible for $150 worth of vouchers.

Application forms and details on where to complete your form and collect vouchers as well as participating businesses will be available on this site and in community newsletters in the coming week.

The Premier’s Flood Appeal Fund is now open for applications.

$2000 per adult and $1000 per dependent child is available to those that had there homes inundated in their main living area.

Applications can be found here : http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/form.html

The Banana Shire also has a trust appeal set up however details on this are not yet available. We will post them here as soon as we hear the news.

ITs something so simple but so important for our community. Many people have been isolated for up to a month so to be able to reconnect and add that social element back into their lives at a stressful time is important. The BBQ’s are also proving to be a great way to bring everyone together, hear their stories, their needs and also for officials and community leaders to give an update on what’s next in our recovery mission.

We all had a great night and for many a smile and a laugh for the first time in a while. It was wonderful to see some of that ol’ community spirit back.

The Community BBQ’s will continue every Wednesday and Sunday night at 5pm in the Bull Ring.

We hope to continue these for as long as they are needed and for as long as we can keep buying steak!

Kirk, Ben and Anthony cooking up a storm

Community enjoying the oportunity to catch up with friends

Cr Vaughn Becker taking the opportunity to give an update

Everyone listening intently to see what's next

If you are like me and love Tracey’s wonderful conversational writing you can check her out at her blog for more.

Theodore, Queensland Christmas Floods – This Town Will Bounce Back

The Boulevard in flood



Maybe we should say – this town will splash back! However you choose to word it, Theodore is a community that won’t stay down for long. Amazing things have been accomplished by this community over the years. Theodore has the only cooperatively owned Hotel in the Southern Hemisphere – owned and run by community shareholders, and putting a percentage of its profits back into the community each year since 1949.

Our retirement village was built from funds raised by locals, augmented by State Government Funding. It has been managed by a local committee since its establishment. A year or two ago, the State Government wanted to assume control over the village, presumably because of the funds they had contributed. The Theodore community set to and raised more money, paid the Government back its contribution and retain control over the retirement village and welfare of own older generation.

A few years back, the Royal Flying Doctor Service (who, incidentally, are awesome) announced a requirement for the airstrip to be automatically lit for night landings, or they would be unable to service Theodore out of daylight hours. Guess what? Theodore got mobile, raised the $60,000 or so dollars, and lit the runway.

Are you picking up a theme here?

This is an awesome community

Our Local Doctors Surgery

We are lucky to have arguably the best rural general practice in Australia…this is how it looked last week. I believe there was a metre and a half of water through the surgery. Heartbreaking for our Doctor, Bruce Chater and his family, who have made Theodore their home for the past 30 odd years…Yet, almost every home in town was similarly affected…heartbreaking for everyone.

Rescuing Fruit and Vege from the post office

But…this is the sort of thing that happens in Theodore…our Post Office also sells fruit and vegetables. The owners were evacuated, along with the rest of the town, but contacted a local farmer who was able to access the shop by boat, and asked for him to get the fruit and vegies out, and distribute them to the police who remained to protect the town and anyone else they could get them to. (The Post Office is a little higher than the other businesses in town, and luckily had no water in it – only under it).

I could tell you many, many stories of the generosity, thoughtfulness and general wonderfulness (I suspect that wonderfulness is not actually a word…but I actually don’t care – it should be!) of the members of this community. As I write, there are many individuals working away: in meetings with authorities to sort out how to get our residents safely back in their homes; networking to co-ordinate temporary accommodation for those same residents while they get their homes clean and habitable again; researching all manner of information and possibilities to assist with rebuilding; and twittering, blogging and facebooking like mad to spread the word about the Theodore Recovery Appeal and the website, Theodore Rebuilds, which has information about the task ahead and stories and photos to give the world a first hand account – not only of how Theodore has been devastated, but also just how resilient this community is planning to be.

I’m not big on asking for help (in fact, if you ask those who know me well, you might find it’s a pretty rare event), but, if you have a few dollars to spare, a donation to the Theodore Recovery Appeal would be something I (and the rest of our fabulous little community) would deeply appreciate. The fund will be overseen by a committee nominated by the community and distributed as fairly as possible (and voluntarily – so no administration fees!) quite likely through a voucher system, which can be used for purchases in Theodore’s businesses…a twofold benefit – once for the recipient of the voucher, and again for the local business.

Yep, Theodore will be back. You can bet on it!

*Special thanks to my friend Diana for allowing me to share her photos with you here in this post…she and her husband (the local farmer I mentioned earlier) lost their entire cotton crop in these floods – after being hit very, very hard by flooding earlier in the year – two crops lost in succession…a blow that most farmers around here have sustained. Yet, they are busy caring for other families and doing all they can to get things back to normal as quickly as possible…This place is brimming with wonderful people!

A big thank you to the Banana Shire Council and Queensland Rail guys for getting the grounds ready to receive the shipping containers and unpacking them into the hall.

Ute load of donations arrive from Calliope

Our Donations Centre!

The level of donations received is simply amazing. The generosity displayed to our community had been truly inspiring.

The centre opened on Saturday and we helped so many people from our community get together the things they need. It was an overwhelming task for many people but thanks to the fantastic volunteers at the centre, there was someone there for each person to provide support and help them find the things they need.

Still a huge demand for whitegoods that we unfortunately can’t fill at this stage. Also for beds and furniture.

At this stage the centre will be open until the demand is no longer there, we are anticipating 2 weeks. After this we will pack up what is left and send it on to the next needy community.

The donations centre team which is headed up by Penny Anderson and Jenny Sams and their team of over 10 volunteers are doing an absolutely fantastic job. IF you are in there make sure you let them know!

No matter how much photo albums appear to be damaged by mud and water, photos can be saved, so don’t throw out your personal or family history.

Take the following steps:-

1. Fill a sink or bath with fresh water and place the saturated albums or bundles of waterlogged photos back in water as soon as possible. Try not to let the albums dry out and stick together, your job then becomes more difficult.

2. Allow plenty of time, maybe hours, for the pages and the individual photos to gradually separate in the water and for mud and debris to float away. Be patient and don’t try to force them apart.

3. Take your time, water will not hurt the photos. In pre digital days ALL photos were processed in wet developers, stop baths and fixers, then washed in clear water to remove the chemicals., so you’re just returning to the process of using water.

All digital photo papers can also withstand prolonged soaking.

4. After the photos have separated and appear clean, gently wipe them underwater with a sponge to remove any remaining grit. – Gently does it!

5. Remove the separated photos from that bath and give them another wash in separate clean water. After a good rinse lift them out and place them on folded clean newsprint – “Butcher’s paper” – in a shaded spot, not in direct sunlight.

6. After a hour or two your photos should be dried out. They will soon be ready to remount into new albums or photo frames.

7. If you have been patient and careful then your treasured links with the past will be retained.

8. Tell others about this process so that their treasured photos will not be needlessly discarded.

Provided by: Mark Chapman

I watched it last night and sobbed for our little community. What lies ahead of us?

But I do have faith that if any community possesses the resilience it is Theodore, we have done it in the past and we will do it again.

Step by step.

The optimist in me tends to think that from each tragedy like this it pulls us closer and tighter and although the worst is yet to come for us we are at the same time creating something really special. But maybe its a bit too early for all that..

A horrible task but nonetheless one small step towards Theodore as we knew it.

A rollercoaster of having such a heavy heart wading through all the destruction, to feeling truly inspired at what we could achieve together by the amazing people that turned out to help with gumboots, trucks and firehoses in hand.

I don’t have a lot to say here as I think the pictures do the talking except that it was an emotional day and I am still taking it all in….

These guys turned up from a property outside town to get their hands dirty. They arrived and said 'right, where do you need us?'

A lifetime of possessions and memories on the footpath ready for the local dump

]]> http://theodorerebuilds.com.au/2011/01/one-small-step-for-man/feed/ 2 http://theodorerebuilds.com.au/2011/01/some-ideas-for-donors/ http://theodorerebuilds.com.au/2011/01/some-ideas-for-donors/#comments Sat, 08 Jan 2011 10:57:56 +0000 admin http://theodorerebuilds.com.au/?p=64 We had had so many touching enquiries asking ‘what can we do to help?’.

Well for a while we didn’t know where to start ourselves! It is so hard to know where the best place to put your thoughtful donations and offers of assistance until now as we are getting back into our town and getting a better idea of what’s ahead of us.

Here are some thoughts:

- Our park in the centre of town – affectionately called the ‘Bull Ring’ has been inundated and could do with an upgrade of surfacing and grass.

- We have many of our beloved ‘oldies’ in the retirement village that had water go through there units. As you can imagine this is devastating for them as many do not have flood insurance for rising waters (Yes a flood is not a flood many of us discovered.). For these people replacing big items like fridges, freezers and TV’s is going to be stressful.

- Our hospital building remained high and dry (just!), however the air-conditioner units didn’t. The nurses quarters also were flooded. So anything to aid in those items would also be great.

- Upon people coming back to town they said the one thing that caught them most by surprise was the all the dead plants, gardens and lawns. This also affects the whole community when we cant see anything nice and green and the memory of the flood lingers on. So any generous person with some turf or access to lawn seed would be a god send!

- Many of our main street businesses have been inundated, losing stock, fittings, and flooring. Anyone with second hand (or new of course!) shop fittings would be make recovery a lot easier for those people.

- May lifetime memories have been damaged – old family photos, antiques, family heirlooms. These things hurt the most as the are simply irreplaceable. However if anyone would like to offer photo retouching or antique restoration that would be wonderful.

- Of course there is also our Trust Fund which will be used to mobilise our local economy again and reinstate our renowned community spirit.

I hope this post doesn’t come across as ungrateful or demanding. We are truly grateful for the amazing amount of support that is being offered. I am simply responding to the request for ideas for donors as just like us, they don’t know where to start..

We are still feeling our way and everyday come up with another thing we realise that we have to learn to do without. (Never before have we appreciated a sewerage and water system so much before!)

I would love to hear other ideas of ways people can contribute that you have thought of or have done in the past.

As a member of our local SES (State Emergency Service) which is a voluntary organization I have been busy for a long while with localised flooding and storm damage and I was even called out on Xmas day to help a chap who turned out to be the duty manager of my local pub!!

It has been a very busy time for all of our local team, but as I was qualified with a flood boat coxwains ticket(and willing to go), I was deployed on Boxing Day with another fellow Vstrom rider and of course boat coxwain, to a small town called Theodore 2 hours south west of Rockhampton to help relieve the local SES crew who had been flat out for many days preparing for a flood in their town.

All the water they were receiving would eventually arrive in Rocky, but not for another week or so, but our time here would be limited as we would most likely be needed back home soon to deal with our own flood event. So, on Sunday morning we headed west and spent a fruitless 5 hours trying to navigate around the county side by 4WD to actually get to the town, but were blocked on both routes by swollen rivers or fast flowing water over flooded crossings!!!

Read more about Richard’s few days in Theodore and his evacuations and see his great photos here

And Richard, thank you so much for all your hard work!