Local NSW flood relief effort rolls on

MEREDITH Transit’s Dale McIntyre has donated a bus to flood victims in north-east New South Wales.

Mr McIntyre had planned to advertise and sell the twenty-year-old bus, but with inspiration from an Alfredton Rotary Club flood relief project, he’s used the vehicle to make a difference.

Deciding to fill the bus up with supplies, he drove it to Lismore at the end of July, so it could become a temporary home for a family of four.

“I contacted Mark O’Toole, a man who had been lifted off his own home by helicopter, and he said a widow and her three teenage children had nowhere to live and had been couch surfing after their home was flooded,” Mr McIntyre said.

With the support of his Rotary Club of Belmont, Mr McIntyre purchased mattresses, protectors, sheets, and pillows for the family.

The Bannockburn Op Shop donated toys, new doonas, pots and pans, while Horsham bus depot colleagues donated enough appliances and home supplies to fill three twin-cab utes.

Ballarat Senior Citizens also contributed some indoor bowls kits.

“The bus was full of nothing but household goods: 35 or 40 appliances, 10 or a dozen bags of dog food, three or four boxes of cat food, towels, face washers, soap, and everything you’d need within a household,” Mr McIntyre said.

“Half of it was distributed by the Lismore Rotary Club. There are thousands of houses that have to be rebuilt. This disaster is far from over.”

Once he arrived after the two-day drive, Mr McIntyre said he met the most “amazing, resilient” people.

“I wonder how I would pick myself up after a disaster like they’ve been through. They look on the positive side, not on the negative side, which is really good,” he said.

When the bus was first in operation locally, it was used for the school run at Meredith.

To connect local people to the flood-relief project, Mr McIntyre returned to Meredith Primary School last month with the bus before he headed to Lismore.

“Some kids travelled in that bus for a period of time. The previous owners of the bus Doug and Faye McFarlane came along, and Bruce Young who drove the bus for six years.

“It gave a family feel to it all, and the teachers were going to talk about the bus at school so the children understood where it was going and what it was going to be used for,” he said.

“The kids climbed on the bus and had a look at what was on it as well.”