Tingha Citizens Association will throw open a resident's de-briefing to everyone throughout the district affected by the Tingha Plateau Bushfire. It will commence at 9am in Tingha Sports and Recreation Club on Saturday March 2. Association president Colleen Graham said she hoped everyone's experiences could be recorded, presented to the authorities to read and be acted upon.
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"I don't know if this sort of thing has been done anywhere else, but we're doing ours, " she said.
They've all got their own thoughts on it.
- Colleen Graham
"I just think this is a fair thing, and I think that will be part of their healing. They might just get up and thank everybody, but then there might be those who get up and say maybe this would have been better if A,B,C had been done.
"I'm looking at it to be a positive thing, to help the community. They've all got their own thoughts on it."
Colleen said those wishing to speak would be limited to three minutes and would have to register to do so. She said an independent chair would run a well recorded meeting.
"I strongly believe that the authorities need to listen to the grass root people who have been affected," she said.
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"They need to hear their comments of their experience. There was a huge amount during that period, aw, misinformation was rife.
"The authorities are all having their de-brief and I think it only fair that our community has theirs."
Landholders impacted by the Tingha bushfire can gain information and possible assistance when a representative of the Department of Primary Industries visits the fire recovery centre in Tingha on Tuesday, February 26.
A Rural Support Worker from the department’s Rural Resilience Program, Brian Sherwood, will be at the recovery centre from 10am to 4pm to meet with landholders and identify opportunities for help. Landholders can also get information from the department’s website here.
Friday's bushfire recovery meeting was attended by about 100 people and held at 7pm the Tingha Sports and Recreation Club.
Staff from the Armidale Regional Council hosted the event in conjunction with the Tingha Citizens Association. Delegates from the Rural Fire Service and Local Land Services, as well as representatives from welfare services such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Department of Family & Community Service were available to speak one-on-one with residents and answer queries.
Colleen Graham said the meeting was called to give the rural property holders a chance to gain information.
"Lots of rural property holders have found it difficult to get away from their properties, I suppose, so were not so many who had come in," she said.
"We had a really good turn-up. Probably one of the good things was some of them came and met neighbours and just had a good, hearty laugh. And that was needed so much because these people, they've have had a terrible time.
"They also wanted to get the message out that a lot of the people were saved, purely because they had had fire retardant put on them. So, questions like 'How do we get it off?' and 'What happens if it gets into our water tanks?'
Colleen said she thought the meeting went very well, with lots of sensible questions asked.