Last Friday morning I awoke suddenly from my usual deep sleep to an almighty crash. It was 5.45am, pitch black and wild westerly winds were lashing at the side of our house but even in the darkness my wife and I sensed our bush surrounded home had suffered major damage.
The first glimpse of a large gum tree’s severed stump on our western boundary was enough to confirm our worst fears. We will have lived in our house 20 years this September and the 12 metre gum was a fairly large tree even when we first moved into our then new residence. But four metres from the house and in good health, it never seemed a candidate for culling and in any event the local council regulations would have prevented its lawful removal.
It was daylight before the total extent of the damage was finally revealed. The complete top two thirds of the massive gum had leapt over two metres and its fallen branches now totally enveloped the entire roof of our multi-level home.
It’s moments like these you realise there’s only one place to call. And that’s 132 500, the State Emergency Service.
My call was answered promptly and a helpful operator at the central call centre took my details and promised I would be called back shortly by someone in local operations. Within 20 minutes the local SES had responded and arranged an onsite inspection to have the extent of the job checked out.
Fast forward to 11.00am a co-ordinator arrives to check out the extent of the necessary work and to ensure there were no dangerous obstacles or life threatening complications, and to arrange for the appropriate crew and resources. Before leaving he assures us they would work through the night if necessary.
With darkness quickly approaching the crews arrive on site at about 5.00pm to set up. With storm damage throughout the region the team had already attended numerous other incidents before reaching what would turn out to be one of their more challenging tasks of their very long day.
Working under flood lights the crew quickly removed the two lower and more accessible sections of the fallen tree to reveal the largest part balanced on the peak of the roof and extending at right angles. Clearly this final task would require special attention and have to wait till morning. In the meantime the remaining branch, which now protruded awkwardly several metres over the side of the house, was made secure.
Saturday: more inspections. The house block is too steep and lack of ready access for heavy vehicles means cherry-pickers or cranes are out of the question to reach the remaining section. A strategy is finally hammered out – the supervisors decide a system of ropes and anchor blocks is the only practical way to go.
Sunday 9.30am a truck and utility appear and the new crew quickly set about securing ropes to the remaining section of tree, slowly winching it around and progressively lopping off the trunk in 0.5 metre sections of about 300mm diameter.
By 11.30am it’s all over and Grant McLory and his team of volunteers are packing up with another emergency successfully handled by the team at SES.
My wife and I would like to extend our sincere thanks to all the SES personnel involved for their courtesy and professionalism in completing a challenging task with a minimum of fuss and bother.
I must say that volunteerism is alive and well in Australia when you see how these people contribute their spare time and effort to the community. Good onya guys.
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