Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
ABC News
ABC News
National

Tasmanian bush community comes together to heal after devastating and tragic storm

Kristen Lang is a published poet who lives close to Mt Roland. She was writing even during the storm. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves)

An almost total stillness followed for days after a terrifying storm devastated areas close to Sheffield, Tasmania last month.

"It was incredibly still like it had just totally exhausted itself," said Kristen Lang, a poet who lives on the lower slopes of Mount Roland.

Storm damage clean up set to take weeks

That kind of psychological impact of a traumatic storm event is what inspired Greg Taylor and his Mount Roland Rivercare group to organise a community get-together with poetry,  music and sharing stories at the Claude Road Hall.

"The physical damage is something people will always think about but the emotional trauma is harder to talk about," said Mr Taylor during the afternoon tea break outside the hall.

"I visited people just after the storm and they were, literally, walking around in small circles.

This is the kind of challenge facing Anisha Luyten's family on the lower slopes of Mount Roland. (Supplied: Boris Luyten)

A friendly mountain turns ugly

The Claude Road Hall is right at the base of Mount Roland — a friendly loaf of a mountain viewed as totemic for Sheffield and the North West region.

Mount Roland, behind Sheffield, as viewed from Devonport. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves)

For at least 12 hours, from June 11 into June 12, it was near enough the epicentre of a violent, terrifying storm that flattened whole swathes of old-growth trees and damaged farms and homes.

In nearby Beulah, 54-year-old Jacinta Vanderfeen was killed and her partner Ken was seriously injured when a tree fell near their home.

Greg Taylor, secretary of Mt Roland Rivercare, organised Reflections on a Storm. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves)

The storm was erratic, missing one place, trashing the next and it was felt from Gunns Plains to Biralee, Kimberley to Penguin. Powerlines were torn down, roofs came off houses and at one point, 20,000 people were without power.

The incredible number of huge trees that came down was not something that many Tasmanians had seen before — if ever.

Reflections on a storm

The local community came together at the Claude Road Hall to reflect on the devastating storm. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves)

The coming together at Claude Road Hall, an event tagged Reflections on a Storm, featured poetry by Ms Lange, didgeridoo-playing by Ron Nagorcka and some poignant songs.

Musician Anisha Luyten sang Michael Jackson's Earth Song, inspired by her own concern that there has not been enough action on climate change.

That lifelong concern is now compounded by her own frightening experience of the storm, which devastated her family's property on a flank of Mount Roland.

Anisha Luyten performed at the event. Her family's property was damaged. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves)

"It was so hectic! We lost part of our roof," said the 19-year-old singer who has been studying at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music.

"My father and I have been working as many weekends as we can to just clear trees, get back to our waterways. It's going to take years."

Disaster Relief Australia volunteers at their Claude Road Hall base camp. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves)

A poet responds. To whatever comes

A working poet caught in a terrifying storm is still a working poet. For Ms Lang, writing is therapy. It's a way to process and make sense of chaos. And she's still writing about the storm:

"The lawn tonight has gathered pademelons. Who knows from where. They cross the buckled ground. Trees leaning into other trees, vertical roots baring their boulders to the miraculous stars," she wrote.

Another common experience of the storm and shared by Ms Lang, was that the wind was roaring so loudly that no-one heard even the biggest trees fall.

"Getting up in the morning was something of a shock," she said.

"And five weeks later it's still shocking to me. Every trail I love is blocked and changed.

"Even the light has changed on our property — the canopy was just blown away."

When Mr Taylor looked out after a full night of intense wind that sounded like a "jet engine", he found 50 to 70 trees down on his own small property.

"It was amazing that you couldn't hear them fall," he said.

"You just listen and wonder and hope you keep your four walls. I'm not sure what would happen, what you could do, if you lost those."

Ron Nagorcka played a Gary Greenwood leather didgeridoo at the event. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves)

Volunteers arrive to hurricane-like damage

The Reflections on a Storm event was aimed at debriefing and healing a traumatised community.

It also served as a community welcome to the volunteer group, Disaster Relief Australia, which has been there to boost spirits by helping with the daunting physical clean-up.

Tony Spillane cleans up his property at Beulah. (ABC News: Monte Bovill)

"We're here for three weeks to do a lot of chainsaw work," said Chris Perrin, the national deputy director of capability with Disaster Relief Australia.

"We'll be on stretcher beds in the hall here and community groups are helping to feed us.

"It's a really significant number of trees and a lot of very big trees.

"We're seeing trees that are snapped off 20 feet (6 metres) from the ground — hundreds of years old and this is the first time a wind's been able to do that to them."

Naturalist and author, Sarah Lloyd, spoke on biodiversity at the event. (ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves)
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.