BlazeAid at Lobethal/SpringHead | Other

BlazeAid at Lobethal/SpringHead

Address: 280 SpringHead Road Mount Torrens, SA, Australia

Website: http://www.blazeaid.com.au

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24.01.2022 WE ARE HIRING NOW! Are you - A retired farmer with time on your hands, A person experienced in, and who loves, fencing, and you want to volunteer to help the community?... Have we got a deal for you - Great teams to be part of Work in the great outdoors Re-hone those possibly dormant skills Work for a grateful community Room for your caravan, camper, motor home, tent, swag, bicycle etc Great Meals provided Flexible working days Same pay rate as our top level Camp Coordinators And last but by no means least..... We have toilet paper..... Seriously, we are looking for experienced fencers to join us as we move more in to the fencing phase of the operation. Our need for general hands has diminished, now we need Experience! We also want to get as much done as we can before the weather closes in on us. If you can volunteer a day or two a week, more or less, as much or as little as you like, we would love to hear from you. If you know of anyone who would fit the bill, get them to call me, 0439653205, or drop in to the office at the Lobethal Oval.

24.01.2022 The Toorak Burnside Bowling Club has very generously donated a Mig/Arc Welder to BlazeAid. The Tool Men, Rob and Cliff, along with one of the Camp Coordinators, Al, are looking very pleased with this wonderful addition to their range of tools. They are already planning some modifications to our fleet of trailers, along with some small maintenance jobs. Heartfelt thanks to the Toorak Burnside Bowling Club and to Lyndon Stacy (one of our regular volunteers) who organised the donation from the Club of which he is a member.

23.01.2022 There are a lot of wonderful organisations out there supporting the work that BlazeAid is doing. Last week we asked Lions Club of Mannum Inc. if they could bring us some bottled water for our volunteers. Sure enough, two Lions rocked up with a trailer load for us. And today they again helped us out with some other bathroom necessities. What a great organisation they are. And not to be forgotten, we have had brilliant support from the Onkaparinga Lions too. They continue to support us in quite a number of ways. I am not sure where we would be without the support of these organisations, and indeed the wider community. Lots of people are very busy in their retirement!

23.01.2022 No work this Sunday.

23.01.2022 TEAM BRENTON Our teams always find something to laugh about as they go about their daily work. This week, one of our vols mistakenly called someone Brenton numerous times. That was enough ammunition for another one of the team members to make up name badges for everyone with the name Brenton on it. At least now when she calls out for help from Brenton she will get responses from 5 others! Pictured: the team of Brentons - Di, Clive, Lynn, Russell, Stewart (absent David), all aka Brenton.

21.01.2022 Bit of a wet day in the paddocks today. But Stewart was happy that his brand new shiny rubber boots stood up to the conditions. Like a big kid, he tested them out in the biggest puddle he could find. Di, on the other hand, just kept working away in her trusty leather boots.

21.01.2022 Doing something a bit different from fencing for a while. Lyn's in her element!

21.01.2022 By now the local grapevine would have worked its magic and the word would be out that BlazeAid is back in business in this area. We know that when we departed we left a lot of unfinished business, so as the Covid19 restrictions are easing, we are back to continue the work that so abruptly stopped. Our camp is somewhat different to Lobethal, as we are now based out of Springhead Church grounds. We are a lot smaller in number, as we still have an obligation to comply with curr...ent Covid restrictions. But we will do what we can. In relation to volunteers, we are drawing on our existing database of BlazeAiders with fencing experience. If you fit that criteria and want to join us, please give us a call to register your interest. We cant promise to fit you in immediately (??current restrictions etc) but at least we know that you can be called on at some stage. Please do not come to the office, contact via phone 0499 555 815, or email is required in the first instance. As for property owners who need to contact us, please also use the same phone no to reach us.

20.01.2022 My new friend Marcus. We still don't have another poddy calf to keep him company so I'm the next best thing!

19.01.2022 As we understand it, BlazeAid at Lobethal will be featured on South Aussie with Cosi this Sunday at 5.30 pm on Channel 9. Its a great show, featuring everything South Australian, so get around it, and tune in every week, but especially this Sunday. Fellow BlazeAiders, you might see some familiar faces!

19.01.2022 Yep, an A1 Team.........as are all our teams.

18.01.2022 These legend ladies, Diane Klingner and Jill Leggett, representing the Angaston & District Lion Club and Angaston SACWA, delivered a truckload of biscuits made by their members to Spring Head today. I think they said 20 dozen , but by the time the troops had returned from the field, and were fed and watered, we may have reduced that number by a dozen or more! Thankyou very much to the bakers in those organisations, from all of us at Spring Head. We really do appreciate y...our efforts. And there are a number of others who bake cakes, slices and biscuits on a regular basis too. The whole community continues to give, a great display of true Aussie spirit. It is so heartening to know that the fire is not yesterdays news, even though 6 months has passed. The rebuilding takes much longer and there are many, many people out there supporting the work that BlazeAid is doing. Volunteers helping volunteers.

18.01.2022 With the current burst of fine weather, it’s all smiles out in the paddocks. Russell is looking mighty pleased with his, and his teams, gate installation.

18.01.2022 Thanks Jill. Consider yourself one of the hardest working women of BlazeAid too......gotta love those concrete posts!

15.01.2022 THANKS EVERYONE FOR SHARING - CHILL BAG AND TUPPERWARE NOW REUNITED WITH OWNER! Lets get this Bag And Tupperware back home! Early on in our camp, probably in the first month, one of the ladies who provided some catering left behind a black zip chill bag with some Tupperware in it. We found it after a day or two, but couldnt remember who it was that lost it. And the lady who lost it never came back. Now that we are closing and packing up I would like to get this bag etc back... to its rightful owner. The Tupperware has the name of Steph Dube on the lid, and mums written on the side. If anyone knows her please tag her. Lets see what social media can do. Thanks everyone. See more

14.01.2022 Another satisfied volunteer...

14.01.2022 What a difference a few days make.....working away in the sunshine, to wondering whether we might cancel work today.

13.01.2022 IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: The bakeries in Lobethal and Woodside can go back to making their regular amount of finger buns from next Monday. One of their greatest supporters, Al, is leaving the BlazeAid camp to go travelling, with his wife, Barb, now that the borders are opening up again. Its a well known fact that Al is a bakery junkie, so the teams cottoned on to that fact and kept requesting he bring finger buns to the crews in the field. The standing joke was that he shouldnt lick the icing off before delivery!

12.01.2022 SNAPSHOT FROM OUR TIME AT LOBETHAL. We started the BlazeAid camp on January 6th, with the first 10 teams going out on January 10th. We had a tsunami of volunteers from all corners of Australia, and some from overseas, offering to help and that never really abated the whole time we were open. Every day we sent 10 - 12 teams out to assist property owners who were amazed how quickly a job could be completed when they had an extra 6 or 8 pairs of hands. Absolutely fantastic effo...Continue reading

10.01.2022 For those Lobethal BlazeAiders who remember our journal artist Liza and all round good guy Marc, our cycling backpackers from Luxembourg, here is an update of their journey across the Nullarbor. Unfortunately COVID-19 has meant they have had to return home earlier than expected, I am sure their cycling travels will continue sometime, somewhere. Check out the pics right to the end, and you will see Lizas Nullarbor artistic journey. So here's what has happened ... It has been a real challenge, but we did it: We finished cycling from Port Augusta to Esperance, but then, because of all the closures due to the virus, we drove from Esperance to Perth by car. In Perth we decided to get a flight back home to Luxembourg on April 9th. We have been very lucky (except for the usual choas we create, and yet that is part of the fun....) while cycling. We had ONLY tailwinds except once, and only one day with 38C, which was horrible! We spent the whole day in our tent, thinking it might protect us from the heat but instead it just trapped the hot air inside and we felt like being insinde a toaster... Outside, we got eaten alive by bushflies and marchflies, and Marc discovered how loud and how long I can scream after I discovered a huge huntsman spider in my pannier and grabbed it, thinking it was a musli bar! The food has been better than we thought - except when Marc thought he had gotten a piece of chocolate mousse cake, and in reality it was vegemite cake (who bakes something like this??? ). And we found out that the Nullarbor is not boring at all: There are lots of different trees, bushes, and even small colourful flowers. We loved cycling at night, because we could escape the heat and see very cool insects! We really enjoyed camping on the Bunda cliffs and seing lots of wild dingoes and kangaroos. Unfortunately we didn't see any camels or wombats. The last week of cycling was the hardest, because we really wanted to cycle the Nullarbor, but had to be very fast to get through before the borders closed. So we did 600km in one week! In the end we even managed to get our 10000km mark before going home... We hope you are safe and healthy Liza and Marc

10.01.2022 Attention Volunteers ***BlazeAid Lobethal will not be working this Sunday 15th March.***Attention Volunteers ***BlazeAid Lobethal will not be working this Sunday 15th March.***

10.01.2022 Weve been asked by the Recovery Centre to post the below on our page, hoping to reach everyone affected by the Cudlee Creek fire. If you were impacted by the recent fires youre encouraged to join the Cudlee Creek Fire Recovery Facebook group - the recovery page managed by the State Government. This private group is for those directly impacted by the fires, not the general public and is a place to ask questions, share information and resources, and connect with your local ...community during the recovery phase. The page includes recovery updates from Recovery Coordinator Alex Zimmermann, regular newsletters, news on financial assistance, events and important information as it comes to hand. It also gives you the chance to see what questions others might have and have those questions answered, or to offer your advice. We look forward to welcoming you! https://www.facebook.com/groups/CudleeCreekFireRecovery

09.01.2022 Hmmm, now there’s a good bit of fencing to be done. No rocks, no steep hills, soft soil, no concrete posts, balmy days (atm, tho unable to guarantee Dec - March)......must also like working in an isolated area for quite a long time!

09.01.2022 Get around this!

08.01.2022 Since advising our return to the district to pick up where we left off, we have had a steady stream of enquiry from property owners, so there is still plenty of work out there to be done. We have had the media jump on the wagon too, with interviews etc conducted with The Advertiser, the Stock Journal and The Country Hour. The article below, in yesterdays Advertiser, gave a good account of our current status. The BlazeAid team featured volunteers Jim Burford, from Mannum, alo...ng with local guys Chris Sumner and Merv Trimper. If there is anyone out there who has some experience with rural post and wire fencing and who might like to join our happy crew, please contact us - email: [email protected] or 0477 555 022 We still have some Covid restrictions to adhere to (mostly around limited numbers in a gathering etc). But if you are at all flexible with your days, we should be able to fit you in. While we have teams going out every day Monday to Friday, we happily accept those who only wish to work a couple days a week. We do prefer those who commit to a few or more days, rather than just a one-off day. If you think you would be a good fit, please contact us for more info.

08.01.2022 It is with deep regret and much sadness that we have made the hard decision to close the BlazeAid camp at Lobethal. We have not taken this decision lightly or in haste, but feel that it is the only responsible course of action open to us for the protection of both our volunteers and the wider community. We have seven groups out today, working feverishly, and a similar amount tomorrow which will be our last day. Our big regret is that we have not been able to finish the job we... started back on Jan 10th. We gave it our best shot, our volunteers kept coming and we kept fencing as long as possible. Unfortunately the Coronavirus has intervened to cut our job short. Thankyou everyone for your understanding.

07.01.2022 After a day on the job, in hot, and windy conditions, these volunteers still come back to us with big broad smiles. And they do it all again tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that..........

05.01.2022 We have had volunteers from many corners of the world......USA, Netherlands, Germany, South America, Israel, Belgium, Denmark, England, Luxembourg and France. Pictured is Ambre, our French backpacker who has been here at Lobethal for about a month. She knew nothing about fencing, but under the guidance of our experienced fencers, Paul (pictured) and Georgia, she has picked up the mantle and run with it. Way to go, Ambre!

05.01.2022 Too bad the Coronavirus pulled the rug from under us.

05.01.2022 A small crew of us supported the cricket match fundraiser at Balhannah Oval yesterday. Great turn up and sensational day to enjoy the sunshine.

05.01.2022 One of our volunteers, Eugene, made this great clip, and uploaded to YouTube, about what it was like to be a BlazeAid vol. The country was steep, many days it was hot, some days it was drizzly, and often it was quite demanding work......would they do it all again.....for sure they would. To use his words I miss the warm, caring and happy camaraderie. Check out the clip here https://youtu.be/gqNG844ICp8

03.01.2022 Its a sad time for all of us, but the Lobethal Recreation Grounds Committee and SA Water have both been great supporters of ours. Its the least we could do.

01.01.2022 Al is keeping his hand in with some fencing repairs here in central west Qld. He’s happy it’s only 3 strand barbwire, as opposed to the six or seven barbs in some fences in the Cudlee Creek fireground Yes, it’s dry here, but normally is thru the winter. Yesterday we had a big storm come thru and measured 24 ml of rain in this paddock. The ground is so thirsty that when we did today’s water run, we were kicking up dust despite that 24 ml. His only lament was no finger buns out here!

01.01.2022 Some helpful information

01.01.2022 Our small, but experienced, group of men and women continue to work their way thru the many jobs confronting us here in the Adelaide Hills. We have finished a further three jobs this week......but still have a mountain (no pun intended) of work remaining. We welcome any new volunteers who might have some experience in rural post and wire fencing - or who can adapt their existing skills. Feel free to contact Sue on 0499 555 815 if you want to become involved.

01.01.2022 For those property owners who have been fire affected, and who are looking to re-plant native vegetation, Mike Quarmby from Birdwood is the man to see. He has years of experience in growing native species, and directly after the fire collected thousands of seeds from which he has grown thousands of seedlings - all indigenous to the area. He has 15 species growing, all meet the NRM standards for re-vegetation, and are frost hardened. They are ready now, or in a couple months, when planting might be more ideal. Mike is very generously donating these to those fire affected property owners. All you need to do is contact Mike on 0439 319 339.