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.
A mate put me onto DRA, I have been looking for something different. I’m retired and spend a lot of time staying fit and traveling looking for something different. Now I have time to help other people. In the past I have been a bit selfish when I was always working and just doing things for myself. Now I have the time to get out there in the community and do something for others.
I have spent most of my life in Defence with 20 years in the RAAF and then 10 in the Department of Defence. This has been my first deployment with DRA.
Previously Ive helped farmers in Tassie on their farms, do fencing and clean up so being out the tools with DRA is very similar.
It makes you feel good at the end of the day to site with someone you’ve helped and have a tea. The look in their eyes always gets me. It’s the motivation that you given them to keep going.
Just to watch the change in people. When you feel that other people are prepared to help you for no reason other than to help. It’s not charity. It’s helping to make things good for people who need it.
This week I have been out there building a few fences, repairing fences, a lot of clearing on the river sides. I absolutely enjoy the work. I could do it 10 hours a day, seven days a week. I have cuts and bruises all over my body and I don’t care. This is great.
The people in DRA are amazing. The MC (mission commander) is really just one of us. You can approach anyone in the IMT and it doesn’t matter. Everybody’s the same when you are ripping grass off someone’s fence.
I like it out the tools, I like to sweat. I like to come back dirty. Knowing that you’ve made a difference.
Peta Pinson is the first woman elected to the role of Mayor in the region of Port Macquarie-Hastings, NSW. For her first term in office, she has witnessed two fires, an ongoing pandemic and is now overseeing the recovery of her community after the devastating one-in-a-100-year floods of March 2021.
Mayor Pinson with Disaster Relief Australia volunteers
Mayor Pinson dedicated an entire day to volunteer with Disaster Relief Australia. She wanted to see firsthand the work of DRA in her flood-impacted community. Mayor Pinson arrived at the Wauchope Showgrounds for the morning brief and instantly bonded with the teams. Arriving at the Smith’s family home on a 320-acre beef farm in Lower Pappinbarra it was all hands on deck to clear flood debris piled high along fences, trees and sheds.
Mayor Peta Pinson clearing flood debris with Nicole Richards from Disaster Relief Australia
The Mayor worked alongside DRA volunteers to bring the Smith family some relief from the constant reminders of flood debris strewn across their property. She noted “The difference that I saw made in just the one day I’ve been with DRA, it put me in the driver seat, gives me an insight into the hard and vital work that they do. This is the absolute truth, the entire DRA team, their generosity and what they’ve brought to the Port Macquarie Hastings region through what has been one of the biggest crises that our region has faced, I am in absolute awe. I cannot stress how important it is for our community to continue assisting the families in the Valley and Lower Pappinbarra.”
The before and after of clearing flood debris off fences that are situated nearly 200 metres back from the Pappinbarra River
Industrial-sized cable fencing and metal poles only installed weeks before the floods had washed up along the riverbank over 300 metres. Property owner Heather remarked the repairing the vital farm infrastructure would have taken ‘weekends’ and ‘weekends’ worth of work. It was completed with the DRA teams and Mayor Pinson in under two hours.
In true DRA style, the teams worked alongside the property owners, Harvey and Heather, returning a sense of normality and lifting their spirits in the joint comradery of teamwork.
As the day drew to a close, Mayor Pinson said s “Apart from the seriousness of what we are doing, we all got to know each other, share some laughs and learn new skills”.
The NSW floods have been a total disaster for us. We are usually up at 3am each day doing the milking and then we milk again later in the day. It is so exhausting keeping things going when you live on a farm. We don’t get weekends and holidays, the work is constant.
When it flooded it was something that we just couldn’t believe was happening. Even the cows didn’t think that the water would get that high. They came up the hill to get away from the water and I was watching them just stand there in the mud. The water kept on coming up and I was standing here near the house and I saw a whole heap of them get washed down stream. It was the most heartbreaking thing to just stand there and not be able to do anything.
I am so sick of the mud, sick of the rain, I am sick of cows, I am sick of them being sick and dying, I am just so over it. There is no break.
We put the cows up in the top paddock and they have stayed there, in the mud. There is no feed. They couldn’t get moved into the paddock with the good feed because it wasn’t safe with all the trees that had fallen in the paddock and no fences anywhere.
Thank you so much for coming to help us. We have been working on fixing things every single day since this happened. We haven’t had water, we have had to milk cows by hand when we didn’t have power. Do you know how long it takes to milk every cow by hand twice a day?
Even if you had just come out and lifted a few branches that would have been good. You came out and it all helps. You have done so much in just one day. Helping us herd the cows as well, it isn’t what you came here to do but we just haven’t been able to do it ourselves. Getting them down the road without them running off into another owner’s place when there is no fence was just impossible.
If you hadn’t helped us move the cows they would still be up there, in the mud and still starving. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
Nick Backe-Hansen pictured centre as mission commander with wave 3 of Operation Elliot in NSW.
I first heard about DRA 3 years ago. Dean West and I worked together in the 5th/7th Battalion at Holsworthy in the 90’s. Opportunities for me at work had all but dried up and coincidentally I saw through Facebook that Westy was in the Virgin Islands, building a school in an area that had been devastated by some sort of disaster. Within 48 hours I had signed up to DRA.
Wave three Op Elliott is my 11th deployment and what makes me keep on coming back is connecting with like minded people, helping out those that are impacted by natural disasters and having the ability to make sure that the teams are having a good time and helping them achieve their goals.
My first few deployments were in the public relations role. Part of the role back then was to observe the psychological position of a resident to identify a potential mechanism of psychological assistance and referral. If I felt that one of our team needed support or someone to talk to, I would speak up and highlight the issue with the appropriate avenues. Being a PRO back then was a tough job, not in a physical sense but I was doing 18 hour days and you always had to be alert mentally, which can be draining.
I’ve come to really understand there exists a kind of nexus between us, as a small embedded team in a damaged area, and the community. There is a unique personal connection that we can bring to them as Blue Shirts that is more difficult for larger organisations to achieve.
After that I was offered the position of a Mission Commander (MC) on Operations and have stayed in that role since. I really like the MC role, it isn’t that I like being in charge or am power hungry, I don’t see the role that way. I just turn up and have a conversation, and people listen and follow me which is my way of getting things done.
Part of that is getting people to work with each other and get along together. I like to make sure that everyone has a good time, lots of laughter and that at all levels we can not only do the work, but walk away having enjoyed it at the same time.
Hopefully in five years time I will be doing the same thing within DRA, being out on Ops with the teams as MC. I like to think that people on my waves respond to my style of leadership, feeling relaxed, and I make sure everyone can feel included and laugh together.
I like to be the guy that people can count on, and to take them as far out of their pain that I can on their worst day. To be the person that when I turn up there is a feeling that everything is gonna be okay.
In these deployed environments our people are what it is all about. It is about them and their experiences, it isn’t about me.
In my normal life I work as a security consultant. I currently work for myself as a private contractor and cover all parts of security, mainly in sport. Prior to that I was in the Police Force.
I heard about DRA while I was working at Invictus Games. It seemed interesting so I looked a little more into it. I started off with a small service project at the wildlife park. Op Elliott is my first full wave deployment. It’s great, being here is everything that I thought it would be. Everything is well planned and the days are structured. Being around a completely different group of people is good, we all have our different quirks. DRA is good at is bringing everyone together and making them into a team. The system works.
Being here has made me realise a few things. One of them is the enormous ongoing impact that disasters have on the community, not only in a financial sense but an emotional and psychological perspective. To a community this is a huge life changing event.
In the middle of a disaster all the combat agencies are there, everything has happened, but afterwards there is a big gap. This Op has really highlighted the disjoint between the disaster to the actual recovery. Most people wouldn’t understand until it happens to them.
I really enjoyed this week – this is exactly what I signed up for. The goal was to get together with like-minded people to help other people when I can and I absolutely enjoyed it thoroughly. I like being on the tools. That’s where my forte is. I really enjoy going out with the strike teams and to feel like I am helping in the community.
I joined the army in 1996 as a medic. After completing 11 years of service, I moved onto the NSW fire brigade and have been a part of the team for 14 years. With both my work in emergency services and serving Australia, I felt that there was something missing. In 2018, I joined DRA and completed the Core Ops Course and was then thrown into my position as logistics officer with the New South Wales DRT.
I enjoy giving back to the community and hanging out with my dog. The feeling of being able to help somebody and making their worst day that little bit better is what I live for.
I love doing this. It is a part of my life that I didn’t know I needed until now.
This experience has shown me that I can do even more than I really thought I could. Being a logistics officer, I initially felt way out of my depth and pursuing it has shown me that yes, it is stressful at times, but I can actually do it.
That gave me a lot of belief within myself that I can do whatever I put my mind to.
I have been on many deployments and interacted with various members of my DRT. The interactions with them and the community showed me how like-minded some of the people around here are. The connections I have made with these people has been amazing.
Since becoming the DRT manager of the NSW DRT, I have worked with and met various characters and a whole range of incredible individuals. I know on every operation or project I have worked on, the team around me are here for the right reasons.
You are putting your heart and soul into the work, and it is time away from your family which can be hard.
You’re usually on some sort of hard stretcher, next to people who snore, and you are eating what you are given instead of what you want.
Working with DRA is a sense of purpose. It’s that sense of purpose when you can make somebody else’s worst day better. There’s no better feeling when even the tiniest thing like cutting down a tree, having someone clear a driveway or sifting through people’s valuables that have been burnt and finding something that they thought had been lost forever. Being a part of the DRT that coordinates and allows that to happen is the best experience in the world.
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Mayor Pinson with Disaster Relief Australia volunteers
Mayor Peta Pinson clearing flood debris with Nicole Richards from Disaster Relief Australia
