Arrived home safely from the QLD flood relief work

We all arrived home safely late last night,

In our week in QLD we managed to clean up 9 houses which was hard work and long days.

when you consider there were over 14000 homes effected by water, it is a huge

task cleaning up QLD and is going to take some time.

Some of the area's we went to had not been touched yet as no one had got to them.

Our last couple of days we where at a place called Booval North, driving into this street

was so heart breaking it was like we had left Australia and we where in another country.

We met a guy who was the bar manager at the Plainlands Hotel, Matt decided to come and help for a day, he was upset at the devastation, so close to where he lived.

This whole estate was under water in the flood not one house was spared.

One of the houses we cleaned in this area hadn't been touched we had to go in and

just start peeling the walls a ceiling off.

Under some of the walls that had been built the kids that lived there when 

they built the walls had written there name there like a time capsule.

To describe the estate we where in was like Horsley or Albion Park, and the

whole place was under water, it looked like a war zone, the Army had just moved in to

start help with the clean up army trucks everywhere, black hawk and sea king helicopters buzzing over your

head all day.

There is also countless people driving or walking around bringing food and drinks to people

working in the area, these people are making it them selves and just feeding the army of volunteers.

Here are some pictures of the houses we cleaned while we where away the some of the pile

of rubbish in the last place where we spent 3 days.

This is one of the houses we striped everything out.

This house was completely under water, over the roof.

This is a picture looking down the street, still more rubbish to be cleaned, every house in this street got flooded.

Another street a block away again every house was under water.

This is a house just striped of its walls and ceiling gyp rock everywhere.

Another house we had to strip the walls and ceiling in.

These skips bin where everywhere driving into the estate, they needed more then they had.

This is a picture again of the bin on the roof of a 2 storey house check the picture below.

This is the bin that was on the roof of the house, look how big it is next to Reg.

 If you look at this photo, just left and above the give way sign you will see a park bench.

 The lady of this house was rescued of the roof by rescue boat, we removed the walls from this house as well.

Darren donating all the equipment to the people we had been working for as we where leaving the next day
The group we worked for where Global Care, they where very happy with our assistance
and the donation of all the products we gave them.
Thank you to the people who helped, and the people who helped while we where away.
Also check the local advertiser, Lake Times and the Kiama independent
as we had a reporter from Wollongong find us ans spend the day with us.

I truly hope that this flooding never happens again, the QLD people have some much rebuilding ahead of them.

Aother day in the QLD flood releif assistance

Today was another huge day we

helped a family who have no insurance, this whole street was under water

there is rubbish and garbage every where, these people where trying to save anything

the area is devastated and no one had been there to help yet.

They have no power no electrical goods and they do not want to go.

This was really hard for us as there was only very little we could do for them

we could help clean up the mess from the flood but they need more then what we can give.

We are currently working with Global Care and the Australian army, this area need is in total

devastation, it is hard to believe that this is in Australia, the last time i saw black hawk helicopter and sea kings

was when there was a Tsunami in Thailand, this is our country and our mates need all the help

they can get.

Today the Jim Knowles Group have pledged assistance with any family

that may need some electrical appliances.

This started the ball rolling we have been pledged a truck load of diesel for people who

need it from Nation Bio Diesel

This is the pile of rubbish we put on the road.

The pile of rubbish moved to the middle of the road

Getting ready to fill the Army Truck

The guy in the exscavator was bitten by a snake the day before

This house was completely under water.

Another pile of rubbish.

Another view of the house.

Another street view.

Day 2 in QLD was a big day

The 2nd day in QLD was a big day

we helped a retired couple remove gyprock  from walls

move water tanks replace water pipes cleaned yards walls removed rubbish 

wheel barrowed rubbish from the yard to road with wheel barrows.

It was hard work but well worth it the couple really appreciated it we did more then they expected

They had been told this morning that their insurance wasn't going to cover

the damage to their house, they where going to use their super to cover the repairs.

It was a good experience for us helping people that really need it.

 

Craig having a rest at lunch time after removing the gyprock from the walls of the house it is really hot during the middle of the day up here.

This is a small creek that runs through the property that we clean today (check the photo below).

This is a photo of the street we where working at today

This is a pile of rubbish piled in the street across the road, note Jason and he is 6 foot tall.

this is the creek after 20 mins of rain it absolutely chucked it down today here we had to dig drains.

 

This is the street and the run off after the 20 mins it was washing the rubbish down the road.

We got through a lot of work today we are currently working for Ipswich council we ring them

in the afternoon and they dish out the work, today was really rewarding helping people that need it.

The QLD clean up started today

This morning we started our cleaning of some of the effected area's in QLD

We started the morning at Gatton and ended up at Murphy's creek help the national parks and wild life services.

This afternoon we ended up at a house in Goodna in Brisbane road.

Goodna is one of the worse hit towns in the region the town looks absolutely devastated.

You listen to people on the TV talk about the smell, the smell is really bad and there isn't

really a way to describe it.

All of people's life possession's are bundled up on the street waiting to be collected by the garbage truck

there are a lot of people helping and offering their services any way they could.

There are people walking round delivering lunch and cool drinks all day, we even had a the 

XXXX truck turn up and give us a case of beer for helping out.

The true Aussie spirit is shining through in QLD with people helping there mates.

We cleaned the inside of a house today that had no walls it was just a shell and we 

had to pressure wash the frame ready for the new gip rock.

This is one of the washed out river's at Murphy's Creek

This is all that is left of a house at Postman's Ridge only the slab

This is a house in Goodna with a garbage bin still on the roof.

This is the Brisbane River behind the house we cleaned at Goodna

Cleaning the frames and Trusses in the bare house.

Plenty of cleaning still to go.

This is the bottom floor getting cleaned by Jason

Team BSL and friends are off to QLD to help with the cleaning after the flood

Members of Team BSL are off to QLD to help in the 

cleaning after the terrible floods that have effected over 75% 

of QLD, we are leaving at 4:00am on Tuesday morning.

There are a number of people who we need to thank that made this happen

firstly BlueScope Steel for sponsoring us to go and with supplies, we where going to use the Kombi 

but due to the recent fire we are unable to use her for the week.

Next is a number of companies that donated goods to the cause.

They where :-

Micheal Edgar from Blackwoods at Unanderra

Trevor Bates and the team at BOC gas and Gear at Unanderra

Coats Hire at Port Kembla and Wollongong

Shane Lee and the team at True Blue Chemicals Port Kembla

LakeLine Butchery at Dapto

Peter Hollier and his team at Eurest Port Kembla Steel Works

Mt Kembla Village Hotel

TCR Team Cullen Racing for the use of the 4WD

These people where so great we told them what we where going to do

and they just gave us the supplies we needed to help clean some of the 

devastation in QLD,  Peoples generosity was just outstanding today it was unbelievable how 

quick we where supplied and ready to go.

We are going to use the BLOG to update daily

what we have been doing and to keep in touch with our families

Please if you like, leave us some comments over the next week while we are away.

Rebecca caught fire on the weekend and is already being repaired

Rebecca suffered a fire in the engine bay on Friday which has taken her out of action

for a few weeks. She was being used at the Illawarra folk festival and suffered we think

an electrical fire, there is damage to the motor and the paint work on the rear that will need to be

fixed, she has been in worse condition.

This fire prevented a group of Bluescope employees from taking her to Qld to help with the

Flood releif effort this coming Tuesday (tomorrow).

This is just another chapter in the Kombi book.

Here are some photo's of the damage.

 This is what we saw on Friday Night all cables damaged.

Yes the Motor is already out and getting repaired.

Some of the damaged cables.

Simon and Darren trying to work out where the fire may have started, we where very lucky it 

wasn't a fuel fire, very lucky.

No Motor in the engine bay.

This is a top View of the motor still in the car, there used to be an air box there.

Thanks to Nigel from Wollongong car Carriers for picking up the kombi and
allowing us to use his workshop to remove the motor.
Wollongong Car Carriers are again an official sponsor for 2011 Team BSL esCarpade team.

Thankyou Mt Kembla Village Hotel for becoming a 2011 esCarpade sponsor

Thankyou Mt Kembla Village Hotel for becoming an official 2011 esCarpade sponsor of Team BSL.

Mt Kembla Village Hotel will be hosting a large number of our

fundraising functions for our 2011 esCarpade team

Keep checking this web site for up and coming events the first one will be in

April.

Come and help us raise funds at the award winning Mt Kembla Village Hotel.



Thankyou Southern IML Pathology for becoming a 2011 esCarpade sponsor

Thankyou to Southern IML Pathology for becoming an official sponsor

for Team BSL in the 2011 Camp Quality esCarpade.

A huge thankyou to the people who work in SRA and Data entry for your

fund raising efforts.

Look for some photo's to be added shortly!!!!