WARDELL HEARTS TO THE CORE AFTER FLOODS
A COMMUNITY is providing invaluable social connection and help for residents decimated by flooding.
Wardell Core and its two-dozen volunteers provide everything from clothes and food to mental health support daily to Ballina Shire residents. The small Ballina Shire town, 10km from the North Coast, was trapped by flood waters from the Richmond River in February.
Resident Joel Orchard helped sandbag before the flood and watched in horror as people evacuated outside his house.
“We took a couple of flood refugees, including our landlords, in,” he said. “We just fed everyone we could for the first couple of weeks.
“People were pretty distressed, really traumatised and there were really big challenges. There was no organised evacuation centre and people didn’t know where to go ...”
All community spaces, including the pub and church, were decimated, leading Mr Orchard to help create distribution hub Wardell Core.
“It was just go, go, go and I think we worked for 60 days straight.”
Mr Orchard estimated over 20,000 people have been helped.
When the floods hit Northern Rivers this year, News Corporation Australia announced a $1m commitment to hard hit communities.
Our News In The Community program has been working with St Vincent de Paul and other charity groups to allocate the money.
As part of that commitment, News Corp has donated $200,000 to nine flood-relief community initiatives and one flood-affected individual in the worst-hit regions — $20,000 of which was donated to Wardell Core.
Still, Mr Orchard’s work will continue: “We’re really focused on helping the people that will slip through the cracks and get left behind and people whose recovery is more challenged because of the conditions of their lives before this event, whether they were unemployed, had health conditions, or from low socioeconomic communities.”
If you want to help, contact wardellcore.community/donate