Hawkesbury Council Community Recovery Co-ordinator Liz Murphy organised a community dinner for bushfire survivors at Chapel Hill Berambing and flew in Victorian disaster expert Dr Rob Gordon to speak at the event. 38 people attended the event of which about 30 were residents impacted by the fires.

Dr Gordon spoke after dinner and repeated the information contained in videos made by the Victorian Government after the 2009 Black Saturday fires featuring him discussing the road to recovery which covers the following topics:

• Coping with stress after an emergency
• Building trust and confidence in your community post emergency
• Tackling uncertainty and anxiety ahead of the next fire season
• Summer strategies to manage feelings and reduce stress.
• Accepting the risk of bushfire and creating a new future
• Learning to trust your own thinking and action.

 You can view these videos at  https://services.dffh.vic.gov.au/travelling-road-recovery-video-series

Some comments from people who attended the dinner.

 He is a boring speaker, but his videos are good.

The food was great, and it was the first-time government bushfire money has been spent in Berambing, and on a deserving business that was burnout by the fires.

It must have cost a bomb. It was nice to have a free meal and chat with neighbours, but I don’t think it was a good use of bushfire money.

People need to feel safe and to do this we have to talk about what happened. The RFS need to give a proper apology for their backburn and failure to warn us of the unfolding emergency. Then we need to talk about what can be done to make sure the same mistakes aren’t repeated. After this we will feel safe and be able to renew our trust and confidence in the RFS and NSW Government. 

The meeting ran over time so not all attendee questions got answered. Council Recovery Co-ordinator Liz Murphy video Dr Gordon addressing the remaining questions after he returned to Victoria. You can view this at https://hawkesbury.sharefile.com/d-se244b6b3f184436aa4f583ef6c0c6adc