Page 27 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 11 February 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
wheelchairs. It was not an easy place to be, as you can imagine. No-one was able to say what was happening.
An RFS volunteer turned up. He came to brief everybody and said basically, “I don’t know what’s going on.” One of the consequences of unfolding fires is that it is very difficult for information to be passed on and, quite understandably, the RFS and others were busy fighting the fires. Getting information through to people was difficult, but that added to the sense of fright, of distress, that many people were experiencing.
Amongst this scene were a bunch of volunteers—Anglicare and others—handing out water, helping people, comforting people and giving out bread, which was essentially the only food that we had. By now, approaching the evening, a lot of people were pretty hungry. People did not know what was going on. It was not a good place to be. Amongst that I saw a really great act of community spirit that I think has been reflected across Australia over this summer, and I will share that with you.
In Batemans Bay every year the local Greek community and people from Canberra, Melbourne and elsewhere go there and they have a dance. They decided, “Let’s get to the evacuation centre with all our food to feed the hungry masses.” They came from John the Baptist, I think it is, the Greek Orthodox church. They decided to get down there and they turned up. We went from water and bread shared amongst, as I said, many hundreds of people to these––
Mrs Jones: It was biblical.
MR HANSON: It was biblical. I am not a religious man, as some of you may know, but there they were, members of the Greek community, with their own barbecues going. These men were cooking the barbecue in extraordinary heat. There was souvlaki. I do not know how many they were planning for their dinner but there was a lot of souvlaki and Greek salad and we went from stale bread to delicious Greek salad and souvlaki. Let me say that it was not just the physical sustenance but the morale boost that that gave the whole room, and this sense of uplift in comradeship, community spirit—Aussies looking after their mates—was fantastic.
I thank the president of the Greek Community of Batemans Bay and Districts, Sid Paschalidis, and his community for donating the food to the evacuation centre. They also made a $5,000 donation to the Eurobodalla Shire Council mayor’s bushfire appeal, as did the Hellenic Club, I note, and the Canberra Greek Orthodox Community donated $2,500.
I got these names from Eleni Harradimos, who is a friend of mine. Apparently the decision to do this was made around her kitchen table in Batemans Bay: Lisa Andonaros; Paul, Jaymima, Georgia and Demi Andonaros; George, Maria, Johnny, James and Karissa Frilingos; John, Chrisoula, Sofia, Eliana and Nikolas Mamatas; Penny and Irene Michalis; Cathy Peppas; Mary, Marissa, Panayioti and Yianni Stefopoulos; and Tario, Effy, Felicity and Parisse Triantafillopoulos. There may have been many more as well. If I have missed them, I apologise.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video