Mayoral Appeals after Bushfires

Ash on the Shoalhaven River

You may have heard of the horrific bushfires across Australia. There were so many, in so many places right across this vast country. There are many many points for donations, so please feel free to make your own choices if you can afford to donate.

Below is my local area's appeal. There are few towns in my council area have not been burnt. I'm fortunate to be living in one of those towns. But there's no time for complacency yet. There's more hot weather at the end of the week, so the sprinklers remain on our roof. The hoses remain attached, filled and ready. Buckets of water will remain around our house with mops and rakes. We plan to fight ember attack, and leave for the river or beach if it goes beyond that.

The Shoalhaven River with smoke and fire clouds

We have people staying with us, fire evacuees. At this stage their home stands, but there's still a spot fire burning behind their property, so they remain here. There's no power in their area. They're hoping to be able to access more belongings today. On Saturday night, they watched the fire map cover their location, and the devastation of their loss was unfathomable. It wasn't just their home, their belongings, but also 'their' trees, their birds, lizards, wallaroos, kangaroos, possums, bats. They don't belong to these, but they share an home, an area of co-existence, with these beings and their loss for the beings was palpable.

When I glance at my Wildlife Wednesdays I'm reminded of the beings around my home that I also love. It would be heart breaking to think of us all wiped out.

Wedge-tailed eagle at Kangaroo Island

You may remember that about this time last year I went to Kangaroo Island which was one of the most wildlife friendly places I've ever encountered. Almost half of the Island was burnt over the past week, and they too remain under threat of more fires.

If you'd like to help out financially, there is a Mayoral Appeal for both area:

https://getinvolved.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au/BushfireRecoveryShoalhaven/news_feed/mayoral-appeal

You can donate via:

Shoalhaven City Council
BSB: 062 585
Account: 10948473
Please quote Reference: Bushfire

Swimming with dolphins at Kangaroo Island

Or for Kangaroo Island:

BSB: 105 094
Account Number: 035 680 540
Account Name: Mayoral Bushfire fund
International deposit enter Swift Code: SGBLAU2S


So many places in Australia were burnt. Much of the east coast of NSW and Victoria, large tracts of SA and Qld, places in NT, WA and Tasmania. Nowhere and no one is left untouched. It's impossible to get my head around the scale of this catastrophe.

If you would prefer to make a more general contribution, the Red Cross has the following page for that: https://www.redcross.org.au/campaigns/disaster-relief-and-recovery-donate


Many thanks for thinking of us, contributing in some way, offering hope, prayers for rain, rain dances, meditations, light codes, love.

Australia hurts and mourns.