Harrow-Balmoral president Michael Phelan said it was an honour and privilege to come to the aid of Kangaroo Island residents, who were still clearly rattled by the devastation to homes, properties and livestock.
“You can tell they are still reeling from what has happened, but at the moment they are just pulling up their socks and getting on with the job,” he said.
“But you get the feeling that in three to six months, when everyone goes and they are left on the farm with minimal staff, that’s when it will really hit home.
“Some farms lost four houses and hundreds of kilometres of fences.
“It will take them years to get back on track and to get some normality back in their lives.”
Club leaders floated the idea of replacing an annual pre-season training camp with a visit to Kangaroo Island in January.
The positive response was overwhelming and although Mr Phelan said the logistics were complicated, it was a highly valuable experience.
“It did take a lot of work to organise and a lot of goodwill from the community to help cover the cost of the trip,” he said.
“It was definitely worth it.
“You see images of the devastation on the news and in newspapers but it doesn’t really do it justice. There is not much left that hasn’t been scorched.
“It’s quite confronting.”
Mr Phelan said he was conscious of the fact the Southern Roos’ contingent would have only two full days to help with island recovery efforts.
“I was a little worried because there have been some horror stories about footy clubs going to help out then getting on the turps and making fools of themselves and doing more damage than good,” he said.
“I told everyone they could do what they liked but we were here to do a job and they needed to be up ready to go.
“Every night we socialised with the locals but everyone was up and ready to go at 5am.
“I was surprised but I wasn’t surprised, we took over a very hardworking group.
“I was very proud of them.”
The Roos split up into 10 teams, tackling projects at seven different farms.
“A few of the farmers weren’t sure about us at first,” Mr Phelan said.
“We rocked up to their place at 7.30am and they didn’t really know much about us.
“It didn’t take them long to work out what we were about and some of the farmers were surprised at how well the jobs were done.
“Some of the teams had fencing contractors in them and I think a few of the farmers were surprised with the quality of our work.
“In the end they were keen to have us hang around for a few more days.”
Mr Phelan said along with building infrastructure, the visit also helped lift the farmers’ spirits.
“At night, we played up in a good way with the locals,” he said.
“We had a few ‘dags’ in our group and there were a lot of laughs and stories from throughout the day.
“In that environment, some of the farmers were able to get a few things off their chests. Hopefully we were able to give them an opportunity to forget about everything, even if it was just for three hours.”
Mr Phelan said along with the club’s physical contribution, the contingent pumped about $15,000 into Kangaroo Island businesses throughout the experience.
He said the club raised enough money before the trip to cover all costs and donate $10,000 to Agriculture Kangaroo Island Incorporated, $500 to the Country Fire Service and Pardana school and 29 tonnes of fodder.
Mr Phelan said the camp also had wide-reaching benefits for his club, particularly those who attended the disaster-relief trip.
“Two words that constantly come to mind about this experience are honoured and privileged,” he said.
“This will continue to have a positive effect for the club and the community.”
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