Operation Woods Update

Disaster Relief Australia | March 2021



Disaster Relief Australia felt a sense of urgency to quickly gear up and provide much needed bushfire recovery to those affected by the Perth Hills bushfires.

We leaned forwards to spin up our newest Disaster Relief Team in Perth. This was no small task and a worthy one. We’re proud of the expertise accumulated over many operations that allowed us to bring together the best minds and valued partnerships to lay a foundation for future operations in WA.

Trusted Disaster Relief Partners

  • Minderoo Foundation collaborate with us through the Flood & Fire resilience fund. They spread our call out for new WA members through their networks and deployed volunteers
  • Coates hire allowes us to complete jobs with significantly larger debris removal requirements
  • Stihl chainsaws are the backbone of all our operations
  • Bunnings continue to support us on every op allowing us to top up our caches with daily operation essentials

At the close of Wave 5, we take this moment to look back and reflect on the success of Operation Woods so far.

8103
Volunteer Hours

157
Volunteer Deployed

68
Work Orders Completed

$426,091
Community Costs Saved

 

It’s really good seeing you guys here

It’s been 7 weeks since the fire came through. The fire did an awful lot of damage to the property. You guys have been the first people to actually arrive on the property and start helping with the clean up. Your response has been great and the ease of getting you guys to come here has been appreciated. Having all you cheery people on the property has honestly been amazing. The work you have done here today, if I would have done it by myself, it would have taken me forever.

David Massie, Property Owner

Operation Highlights

Reflecting on the establishment of our seventh disaster relief team, located in Perth.

Minderoo Foundation volunteers worked side by side with DRA strike teams.
Through the efforts of many, DRA has been able to quickly bring help where it’s needed most.
Diligent sifting has brought hope to families. Some valuable family memories have been retrieved.

We are a lot closer to getting back on our land

Seeing you guys rolling in, and just getting down to it and chipping away has been so awesome. You are going to take a huge chunk out of what I would have had to do on my own, this would have taken me days and so I am so grateful.

All we want to do is get back onto our land but my husband Brett works away and so we have wanted to get fences in for security, because it’s just me and the two girls, we haven’t been able to do that because the land hasn’t been cleared.

After today and the work you guys have done, we are a lot closer to getting back on our land.