March 28, 2022
Cherbourg community received some high praise last week when the new State Recovery Coordinator for Queensland dropped by in the wake of recent flooding which cut off the town.
Major-General Justin (“Jake”) Ellwood DSC, AM, CSC met with councillors, Elders and members of the Cherbourg community.
“It’s really clear that this is such a tight-knit community with wonderful leaders, the Elders leading the community, absolutely fantastic and inspirational,” Major-General Ellwood told Cherbourg Radio.
Major-General Ellwood is visiting all the communities which were affected by the recent disaster.
“What I have learnt is that every community, and indeed every individual, is going to be affected differently,” Major-General Ellwood said.
“It’s very powerful to actually speak to community members and community leadership to understand the impacts of the flood.”
The Major-General will be preparing a State Recovery and Resilience Plan over the next few months, with information gathered from each community.
A common theme so far was the mental stress that disasters cause.
“Some communities, some individuals are resilient because they may have had community programs or they have a very close community; others may be less so,” he said.
“Of course, it depends on the severity of the flood and the impacts.
“I think out of this will come an understanding both of the impacts mentally for communities and how we can help make communities that little bit more resilient.”
He said the “Get Ready Queensland” program, which encourages people to think about what they would do in a disaster ahead of the event, had clearly paid dividends in some areas.
Earlier this month, Major-General Ellwood also met with South Burnett Mayor Brett Otto and councillors.
He was accompanied by Warrant Officer Class 2 Michael Dowling who visited BlazeAid volunteers and inspected local damage.
Major-General Ellwood previously co-ordinated the national recovery for the Australian Defence Force’s response to the Black Summer bushfires in 2019-20.
He has also served with the ADF in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and did two tours in East Timor.
