Photo by Michael Marston - Department of Emergency Services ...

EMQ managing Aussie generosity after Larry
An entire shipping container full of
Weet-Bix was just one of the
unusually generous offerings that found
its way to the storeroom at the Innisfail
SES following Tropical Cyclone Larry
earlier this year.
The anonymous donation is still baffling
EMQ Youth Development Officer, Scott
Mahaffey, who has been responsible for
managing offers of assistance for the
past two months.
And with offers of assistance arriving
from businesses, government
departments and the general public, the
task of allocating donations to needy
recipients was unexpectedly large.
“We received 642 official offers of
assistance but not all of the products
or services that were being offered to
us were actually of use,” Scott said.
“A good example is a couple from
America who volunteered to fly over
and help us for free – if we could pay
for their airfares. So we had to whittle
the list down to donations that were
viable and useful.”
After much investigation, a steering
committee narrowed the list down to
70 workable offers including a $15,000
shed from a Toowoomba company and
$80,000 worth of office equipment
from a Sydney firm.
“We had a huge amount of office
stationery given to us including brand
new fax machines and photocopiers,
so we divided it all up into boxed packs
and sent these out to 83 different
organisations who were desperately in
need of office equipment,” Scott said.
Among the most common – and useful
– of donations was housing material
such as roofing iron, metal sheeting
and guttering, which allowed hundreds
of homes to be temporarily restored.
Cleaning products, bottled water
and safety clothing also came in by
the pallet load as did computers and
kitchen supplies.
These offers were distributed by linking
up donating suppliers with relevant
non-profit organisations – the number
of which was unexpectedly large,
Scott said.
Four pallets of kitchen utensils and
cooking equipment went to Meals on
Wheels and much of the bottled water
was given to SES volunteers that spent
a considerable amount of time in the
sun repairing damaged homes.
But the process of managing such
extensive donations will need to be
further refined if Queensland is to face
a similar crisis in the future, Scott said.
“Transportation of goods has been
the biggest problem,” he explained.
“One organisation offered us eight
pallets of timber twine but all of it was
sitting in Tassie, so we had to seek
further donations to cover the cost of
getting it up here by road, then ship
and then road again.
“In the future, we’ll also need to
establish one central phone number
to which all offers of assistance can
be directed and managed by one
team of staff,” he advised.
But ironing out the administrative
difficulties of managing such a large
volume of donations has not tainted
the experience for Scott.
“We’ve seen so much generosity
that it really makes you proud of
the human spirit. People in
Australia will always give when
there’s a dire need,” he said.
And at least there’s no shortage
of Weet-Bix.
– Sarah Oppenheim
22 EMERGENCY October 2006 www.emergency.qld.gov.au