WHEN Jannie Weymouth got the call that the south-west had been hit by devastating fires, she quickly packed her bag and drove 10-hour days to get to Terang.
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“I finished packing very rapidly and put myself in my motor home and it took five days,” she said.
Known around the BlazeAid camp as the Duchess, the Whitsundays resident is one of the volunteers who helps keep the camp running smoothly.
Each morning she gets up at 4.30am to make sure food for breakfast is ready and the dinning room ready to go.
“I make sure that all the food is out for breakfast, all the food is out for their lunches so that they can make their lunches, their thermos’ are together and get their eskies organised,” she said.
Ms Weymouth said at other camps she and other volunteers have cooked the dinners and other food for morning tea, but this time around a number of local organisations had supplied a mountain of cakes, slices and biscuits along with meals for dinner. “This is the first camp where we’ve had such a public response,” she said.
“This has been the easiest camp but it doesn’t mean I have any less hours.”
Ms Weymouth said she had volunteered at five other BlazeAid camps and was constantly amazed at the resilience of farmers.
“I’m always astonished at the resilience of farmers, I shouldn’t be because I come from a diary farming background,” she said. “Farmers refuse to give in. They’re stubborn, they’re obstinate, they’ll say ‘everybody else is far worse off than I am.’ Then they give in, come in here and you see the relief on their faces and the sheer incredulousness that it’s so hard to realise that perfect strangers are coming and doing it for you.
“Here you can see that what you’re doing is actually helping, it’s reaching the people who need it.
“We’re right there and hands on. You can see through the work that life is getting back to normal.
“The one thing all the volunteers have in common is compassion. A thought that I can do something to ease someone else’s trouble.
“Most of us are country folk and we live by the idea that you help your neighbour when he’s in trouble and of course, please God, if something bad did happen to me, it’ll come back.
“For a lot of these people here it’s paying it forward because there’s a few people here that have been affected by bushfires or other disasters.
“I enjoy meeting all the different people who work here and meeting people in the community. I’ll stay as long as it’s needed. However long the camp is, that’s how long I’ll stay.”
