Disaster crews called in to help Kentish clean up and rebuild

A DISASTER crew named in honour of one of Tasmania’s favourite sons has arrived in the Kentish municipality to help the storm-battered community get back on its feet.

Operation Sheean – named after VC recipient Teddy Sheean, who hailed from Latrobe and nearby Barrington – will involve 20 volunteers.

Following a week of survey work using drone footage, Disaster Relief Australia volunteers now know where the focus of the work needs to be.

In June, a wild – and fatal – storm with wind gusts of up to 200km/h carved its way through the area causing thousands of trees to topple, powerlines to fall and roads to become impassable.

A woman died when she was hit by a tree on her Beulah property.

Damage was also caused to homes, farm outbuildings, pumps and kilometres of fencing.

“It has been great to see a whole community approach in support of the clean-up effort from community groups, local council, state government and assistance from the federal government,” Resources Minister Guy Barnett said.

“To bolster this effort, an additional clean-up, called

Operation Sheean, will take place over the next three weeks. “

This will be the first operation in Tasmania to be conducted by Disaster Relief Australia, which has a newly established branch in the state.

DRA was founded in 2016 and deploys veterans and emergency services specialists to assist communities with resilience and recovery.

“I have visited the Kentish region in recent weeks and spoken directly to those affected by last month’s tragic storm,” Mr Barnett said.

“Over the weekend, I met with some of the volunteers and it has been wonderful to see how the community is coming together.

“The government has been providing support to the Kentish Council to assist in the recovery effort and I welcome the jointly funded commonwealth-state disaster recovery funding arrangements that will be provided to the region.

“This disaster assistance will help those in the region get back on their feet, particularly our primary producers who suffered significant infrastructure and stock damage.”

DRA has set up email address for the community to contact them for requests for assistance: opsheean@disasterreliefaus.org