St Agnes’ Catholic Parish Flood Recovery Group has won a 2022 Port Macquarie-Hastings Council Australia Day Award in the Community Group of the Year category.

The Award is recognition for the Group’s work in supporting the local community in recovering from the severe flooding across the Port Macquarie/Hastings and Camden Haven communities.

Peter Johnson, who coordinated much of the flood recovery effort in terms of the rebuilding of homes at Riverside Residential Village in Port Macquarie and Brigadoon Caravan Park in North Haven, says the commitment of staff and volunteers in helping the community has been outstanding.

“Identifying a need and doing something about it is at the core of work done by the Parish. We are very fortunate to be part of a community that constantly rallies to support those most in need in times of crisis,” Mr Johnson said.

“This Award is to share among the many staff and volunteers across the Parish who helped people through the initial loss of their homes, through the back-breaking clean-up and the long-term recovery process.”

“It is also testament to the resilience of those affected by the floods and the willingness of not-for-profit organisations and all levels of government to work together.”

He mentioned specific examples of how the Group helped the community including:

The Francis Retreat was repurposed as an evacuation centre under the control of NSW Disaster Relief and was home to approximately 70+ displaced residents from Laurieton and Dunbogan. Managers and staff of The Francis Retreat were adaptable and responsive to the immediate need for food, accommodation, respite, pastoral care and connections to other government and community services.

The aged care services at St Agnes’ site in Lochinvar Place was able to accommodate six displaced elderly members of our community with varying health issues from the local hospital. Three of which have now been permanently placed in our care.

Clean up crews of both employees and volunteers were able to assist with several home cleans over two weekends at Riverside Residential Village on Hastings River Drive and Brigadoon Caravan Park in North Haven, as well as in the residences of those in the Parish community, including employees, that were affected.
The St Agnes’ Parish Pop-Up Pantry was established at 110 William Street providing assistance to those recovering from the floods with non-perishable food and other supplies such as blankets, linen and towels. Many of the donations to the Pantry came from our school communities.

A team of 60 volunteers including parishioners, members of the general community, school staff and other Parish services were the backbone of this service. The Pop-Up Pantry, the Parish Youth Hub, St Vincent de Paul and various other community services worked collaboratively to assist people in need through this service. During its time the Pop-Up Pantry helped 200 families, some of which visited multiple times. After its closing, the Pop-Up Pantry continued to provide fruit and vegetable trays, and food vouchers to people on an as needs basis.

Six independent living units in the retirement village at St Agnes’ Village and a community housing residence in Church Street was refurbished using donated furniture to accommodate displaced residents from the Riverside Caravan Park in Port Macquarie and Brigadoon Caravan Park in North Haven.
Assistance was directly provided to affected community members through school fee assistance, uniform assistance, accommodation where possible, food and clothing vouchers, repairs and maintenance and other needs as required.

In June, the Parish signed a funding agreement with Resilience NSW to establish a Recovery Support Service (RSS). The RSS provides a holistic case management service to help affected individuals and communities recover from flooding. The RSS team has focussed on helping caravan and holiday park residents in the Port Macquarie and Camden Haven areas needing temporary accommodation. As of November 2021, the service has helped 269 individuals or family groups and this support continues at a rate of 30-40 cases per month.

“I have been both proud and humbled by the efforts of our Parish and we are all delighted with the nomination for Council’s Australia Day award,” Mr Johnson concluded.