Disaster recovery is rewarding work. Be it flood, bushfire, cyclone or pandemic, Disaster Relief Australia (DRA) is here to help. With our army of dedicated volunteers, we respond to disasters and deliver support to those in need.
DRA brings hope to communities devastated by disaster. We unite the skills and experience of military veterans, emergency responders and motivated civilians to deploy Disaster Relief Teams around Australia and the world. We help people during some of their worst days.
Volunteers are the cornerstone of Disaster Relief Australia’s operations. With more than 3,000 members nationwide, our veteran-led tribe serves communities before, during and after natural disasters strike to strengthen resilience and deliver much needed relief and recovery services.
News and stories are the heartbeat of our mission. Discover the inspiring narratives of our dedicated volunteers and resilient communities we stand by. These stories vividly depict the impact of our work, showcase the power of compassion and unity and remind us that we can make a difference together.
Deploying with DRA and supporting disaster affected communities is rewarding beyond measure. Through volunteering, corporate partnerships, financial donations or working with us, there are many ways to make a positive contribution and become a force for good.
There are many ways to make a positive contribution and bring hope to others. As a not-for-profit community cause, Disaster Relief Australia exists through the combined generosity of volunteers, donors, corporate partners and fundraisers.
I moved here from Sydney ten years ago for the beauty of the country and the space. Even after the flood, when I woke up in the shed (because the house wasn’t able to be lived in) it was still beautiful.
During the flood, the water was as high as 1.5m in the house, all the furniture on the veranda was scattered over the property and mixed in with the debris that the flood waters carried here. I was lucky that none of the windows broke, but all the flyscreens are gone. The cabin, which used to be a feed shed was completely lifted up by the water and smashed against the fence over there.
Today I am getting ready to move out of my house as some Nurses are coming in and need a place to stay. I’ve also got some of the workers working on infrastructure repairs staying here, and if don’t move out they’ve got nowhere to stay.
I’ve had so much help. I couldn’t have done it without all the help. The help has been Amazing. You guys are incredible.
The floods caught us. They caught everybody by surprise. The magnitude and the speed with which the flood came up; the hundred-year flood is nothing compared to this one.
We were awake all night. We’d put our heads down for ten minutes and then jump up to see where the water level was. We came to the realisation that it just wasn’t going to stop, it just kept coming.
When the flood entered the house at 3am in the morning, I just sort of let go and realised that this is beyond anything that I’ve experienced or known. It became about making sure everybody in the house was safe and that we could get out.
We started making preparations in case we needed to get into the ceiling. Daylight came and we made our way out of the house. There was a boat waiting, local people from Woodburn who said, ‘we’re here to pick you up.’
The relief centre was rough. There was just nothing there – no food, no water. IGA was great. They allowed us to go raid their storeroom and fridges. We all just grabbed what we could in three minutes. That’s what we used to feed everybody in the first two days.
It was fortuitous to run into Disaster Relief Australia at the bakery. To be honest, it was a really great surprise that you did everything that you said you were going to do; we didn’t get that with everyone.
It had been doing our heads in, moving things backwards and forwards. But then DRA moved in and whoopa! Incredible.
I commend you on your organisational skills and your professionalism. I can’t speak highly enough – it’s been brilliant. What you do is incredibly uplifting, and it’s given us that much of a push along the track to at least be able to have somewhere to live and get a bit of normality back into our lives. You couldn’t have done anything better.
I hope that down the track we can pay it back by helping someone else.
Today was really rewarding and a big eye-opener seeing how much was destroyed in the floods. It’s one thing hearing about it – but seeing it is completely different!
When we first arrived at a homeowner’s house, we thought “this is a huge job, how are we going to do this?” But we achieved so much and walked away knowing that we’d made a real difference.
The Disaster Relief Australia environment was awesome, and the team on the ground were really informative and supportive. It’s been a really positive experience, despite it not being a positive situation. We would 100% get involved again, DRA is really well organised and it’s been really eye-opening to see how much work goes in behind the scenes.
I’ve lived here for 12 months but I’ve never seen anything like this ever. About a metre of water came barrelling down the stairs and ramps. The water pressure has blown the heavy fire doors off their hinges and ripped them in half. It’s come through the carpark and through all the storage cages full of personal belongings, mattresses, cupboards etc. I lost a lot of camping equipment and antique cameras and old negatives and slides. I’ve been trying to clean them up but not sure if they’ve survived.
We’ve been working for a couple of days trying to move all this rubbish up from 2 floors underground up to the street level. It’s been hectic here since the weekend. As we started to pump the water out you could see where it got to and the amount of damage that was done. We couldn’t have done all this without you.
Having the extra hands here today has made such a difference and we can’t thank you enough for all the help.
Before moving to Gipsy Point in 2009, I was living in Melbourne and just felt like a tree and sea change, I’ve been here about 12 years now with my partner and our dog Trixie.
The day the fire came through was pretty heavy, we had been watching it on the internet for a few days and we knew it was heading our way, it was a pretty tricky situation because we knew that the resources were spread very thin. All we had was one Land Cruiser ‘slip-on’ that has 400 letters of water. So we had to be pretty careful, we could have done with some more help, but it was what it was and we just made it a priority to protect life.
As the fire came closer the scale of it made me quite concerned for the safety of the people in Gipsy Point. I had been mucking around up on my property, but quickly realised I needed to just fall back to make sure everyone was prepared and okay, because if I was there was a chance the fire could have got behind me and could have been really bad. So I made the decision just to leave our property and defend that little township down the road.
The first fire front came through and we’re actually pretty lucky in that the wind wasn’t as crazy as it might have been. Soon enough one house went up, we just can’t fight a structure fire with a slip on. Especially without mains water, it’s all tanks and with no electricity most of the pumps being electric means we have no pressure.
The fire pretty much burnt all of the property, we lost the house, two cabins, a caravan, and the tracker. I got a couple of car loads out and some motorbikes.
It’s been a tough few years for us. We have been busy working and trying to figure things out. We’ve only been back out on the block for less than a year, I’ve had limited time and I’ve lost a lot of my tools and equipment. So what Disaster Relief Australia did in one day would have taken me weeks, if not months, you know, so yeah, we’re really grateful. It’s been very nice to meet all your people. Down the track I might have to sign up with Disaster Relief Australia, get involved and pass on the help.
The day the fires came into Mallacoota a farmer friend told me it is really coming. My house is on the outskirts of Mallacoota, my driveway is quite long, so I thought, if I stay, I won’t know if the fire comes to us, so decided to go to the shop. I planned to camp just overnight, just in case. But then the fire did come.
It wasn’t long before we lost power so started my generator after checking with the fire brigade, and started making coffee. People came and then I don’t know what time, it got really really dark. I couldn’t see because I didn’t have lights. I put my mobile phone up on the shelf so I could see the machine, my grinder Mythos has a light, I never knew what this was for but it was really handy that night. I kept making coffee, fire engines started circling, I thought I should get out but many people wanted to go to the lake on their boats and wanted a takeaway coffee, and there was actually quite a queue. We couldn’t even see the money, so I thought okay, I will just keep making it till the line ends and the last person in the queue was actually a local CFA guy. I asked him what does this mean, what should we do? He said we should go to safe places for the community, but he wanted his coffee first.
I was at the wharf, a lot of people were there and it felt safe because the fire engines and the ambulance people were there, but people were shocked. We kept hearing gas cylinders popping, we could see flaming houses, and then suddenly it became very cold when the font came through. So it was surreal, the skies were beautiful, different collars, dramatic but very overwhelming.
I made coffee again after the fire passed. Then I ended up staying here in the shop for maybe 14 days. The caravan park was very helpful, they made the facility available to everyone, so I could shower there. I would set the alarm clock to wake up at about midnight, Victorian police people came maybe six maybe eight people who have to go away to man a couple of roadblocks on the highway. That was fun, I was in my pyjamas and the shutter was sort of half-open. Police cars would come and people in uniform would buy coffees. For me that was funny.
Someone encouraged me to go to the Bush Fire Recovery Centre just before Christmas last year, I was assigned a case manager. She told me that Disaster Relief Australia is planning to come to Mallacoota and maybe they can help me. Darren and Peter came to meet me and unfortunately they had to leave because of the COVID and the lack of accommodation.
I have about two acres, I used to grow veggies and I used to enjoy the property but a few things happened and it started to get let go. Since the fires my mental health hasn’t been good, especially in winter, I really couldn’t do much at all. So everything really grew and grew, until the house was almost invisible. I used to hear branches, rubbing against weatherboards or the tin roof, it sounded like the house was screaming.
Disaster Relief Australia made a big difference, about a dozen or so people did a massive job over two days, everything that I wanted to go has gone. Now I have hope again, I feel hope that maybe I can like the place again, I feel good. Now I can feel and see the kindness of people that will help me restart. I haven’t had hope for quite a while.
In December 2019, devastating bushfires ripped through the Adelaide Hills, destroying 86 houses and damaging around 160 more as well as burning through hundreds of hectares of farmland and vineyards.
Following these unprecedented Black Summer bushfires, Disaster Relief Australia (DRA), initiated dozens of operations around the country to help clean up after the devastation and get communities back on their feet. DRA’s Operation Hannaford in the Adelaide Hills lasted for several weeks from mid-January 2020.
Among the dozens of volunteers who took part in Operation Hannaford were four Afghans. They’d had no prior involvement with DRA, they weren’t veterans or first-responders, they were simply refugees who felt it was their duty to help the country that had welcomed them.
One of these was Fatema Hassani. She and her family fled Afghanistan when she was five. Fatema spent much of her life in Pakistan until she and her daughters joined her husband in Adelaide. She is currently training to become a bus operator.
Though she wasn’t directly affected by the bushfires, Fatema says she was very upset by what she saw on the news and looked into becoming a firefighter. The South Australian Fire Service then put her in touch with DRA. As part of Operation Hannaford, she worked three or four days a week in the Cuddlee Creek area helping to clear debris from fire-damaged properties and rebuild fences for surviving livestock.
‘The local people were very happy with our work,’ Fatema says. ‘They did not expect that we would get so much done in so short a time. The important thing for me was the smiles and happiness from the residents.’
She felt very welcome and appreciated by her fellow DRA volunteers.
‘I was the only Afghan lady, but everyone was very friendly. It was like working with my own brothers and sisters.’
She also enjoyed talking to those volunteers who had served in Afghanistan with the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Given Fatema hadn’t lived in Afghanistan since she was a child, some of the ex-soldiers was able to update her on what was going on there, even using a few words of Dari – Afghan’s most widely used language.
Image: The four Afghans who volunteered for Operation Hannaford, including Fatema Hassani (second from left) and Abdula Azimi (second from right), along with DRA public relations officer, Andy Young.
A fellow Afghan who took part in Operation Hannaford was 36-year-old Abdula Azimi. He fled Afghanistan 13 years ago and settled in Adelaide with his wife and four children after a spell in Western Australia.
A welder and tiler, he feels very welcomed by the Australian community, just as Fatema does.
His reason for getting involved was the same as hers.
‘Australia saved my life and my children’s lives,’ he says. ‘I should do something for Australia. Australians are like my family.’
Andy Young is a public relations officer with DRA. He worked with the Afghans taking part in Hannaford.
‘They’re such lovely people,’ he says. ‘When Abdula saw on the news that the Red Cross were saying a family had lost their car in the fires, he contacted the Red Cross and offered to donate his own Mazda 6.’
When Andy was in the Army, he was deployed to Afghanistan every year from 2010 to 2014, and again in 2016.
‘How good is it that we can work alongside Afghans who’ve sought refuge in Australia and are willing to get out and demonstrate their support for this country. Every one of them I spoke to said how appreciative they are of this entirely new life and how they want to give back to the community.’
Following the end of the war in Afghanistan, DRA is making more of an effort to connect with Afghan communities across Australia and invite them to get involved.
Andy is enthusiastic. ‘Engaging with them like that has a dual-benefit – for us as veterans of Afghanistan, and for the Afghans. DRA provides a community for volunteers, it gives you a sense of purpose, it gives you camaraderie. Working alongside Afghans who are now living meaningful lives here in Australia makes you realise there was a benefit from our deployment to Afghanistan, and that the 20 years Australia was there wasn’t wasted.’
Geoff Evans, CEO of DRA, takes the same view. He was in the Army for 19 years, many of those as a Commando, and did two tours of Afghanistan where he was wounded in action.
‘Afghanistan holds bitter-sweet memories for me,’ he says. ‘I was privileged to lead Australian soldiers in combat and help the people of Afghanistan, but we lost two mates there – it can be hard to reconcile.
‘Veterans who deploy with DRA find that sense of purpose and belonging they miss when they leave the ADF. But that is also true for our Afghan friends. I think with the fall of Afghanistan there is an additional obligation on us to extend our services to the refugees who have been forced to flee more recently. Who better to help them integrate than those they served beside?’
I have lived in the area for over 40 years on and off. I moved to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and lived there for nine years before coming back here. It’s our family farm of 200 acres.
We, my son and daughter-in-law, left for town two days before the fire came through here and came back daily to feed the animals. I used to run cattle until this happened, but now that’s all finished. I lost eight and had to sell the rest, about 20, because I had no fences left to keep them in.
How the fire didn’t take the house, I don’t know. My dad was really old and I had a ramp built for his walker so he could get inside easily, and the fire burnt the ramp, right up to the door. I reckon he was watching over us.
The work DRA has done today is just, wow! Clearing the fence line and chainsawing the trees for me. My son is a carpenter and works long hours and has been trying to chip away at it, bit by bit on weekends but it’s such a big job to do. He doesn’t know you guys are here today so he’s going to be so surprised when he comes home and sees how much work you’ve done for us. So many other organisations have said they’ll come out and help and they just never turn up or they say “you didn’t lose your house or shed, we can’t help you”.
After 18 months, the wildlife is just starting to come back – a few wallabies, a wombat under the house and kangaroos that come right up on the lawn that I throw vegetable scraps out to.
Thank you for the work you people do, it’s just wonderful. Now we can put a fence at the front of the property again.
One of our biggest concerns, when the bushfires were coming, were our cattle. We wanted them to be safe, and despite everything, they all survived. No burnt hooves, none needed to be put down. The rest of the property didn’t fare so well. Our house narrowly survived but we lost many trees and outbuildings including our performing arts studio which was integral to who we are.
We lived much of our early lives in the city, working in academia, lecturing at Universities and working in the spheres of contemporary art. After moving to the country and owning livestock our perspectives on life changed. Owning cows changed our lives, which is an interesting thing to say but it is true. To be enmeshed in the environment brings you a much closer connection to the land and owning cattle is a learning experience, they have personalities and social structure and are quite intelligent animals.
Recovering from the bushfire has been a long journey. Every day you look out and there is so much more to do. Our studio used to support postgraduate students with their thesis production and after its destruction, we have lost many of those connections and feel quite isolated.
Having DRA come out with 11 people was fantastic. It was incredibly therapeutic to be able to work alongside the teams, they have motivated us to action and given us some momentum to keep going with our restoration work.
Having the team come back a second time to surprise us by organising to clean and tidy up the cemetery is humbling, we weren’t expecting it at all. I was dismayed when we walked through and saw how bad the undergrowth was, it is normally such a well cared for place. It is gratifying to see it looking so much better. Thank you DRA.
It was all a bit surreal when the fires came through. It may have been 18 months ago but the feelings are all still there and quite upsetting. I remember that when I drove out of here with a few things in my caravan I didn’t realise how close it was, or how serious the fire was or else I would have taken other precious items.
I lost absolutely everything in the fires. The house, gardens, sheds, everything that I have been trying to leave as a legacy for my grandkids was just gone. I have been in this area for 45 years and in one day had nothing left to show for it. I had no idea what to do next or how I was going to achieve it.
The kindness of strangers, the community coming together, the groups that have come out to help me have assisted me to start working through all the tasks that need to be done, and helping me to start healing as a person over the last 18 months. I can’t say thank you enough to everyone that has come out to help me, including DRA. It means so much that now those dead trees have been cut down I don’t have to look out the window every day and look at their dead, burnt trunks and be reminded of the fire every time I look up. Or look at them, wondering if they are going to fall.
As I am rebuilding the house and gardens, I feel like every person that has come to see me and helped me to rebuild is now a part of my life forever. This is my home, but I don’t feel that it is just mine, because you have all come out and left a little imprint of yourselves here too.
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