Caring for the community: Kyabam chaplain Liz Spicer (third from right) with Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp and members of the Echuca Relief Centre counselling team.
Some superheroes have capes, others just a very big smile and warm embrace — the latter explains Kyabram P-12 College Chaplain Liz Spicer perfectly.
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She has spent almost two weeks supporting victims of the region’s flood events at the Echuca Relief Centre and will continue to make herself available as communities like Rochester, Mooroopna, Echuca and Shepparton rise from the floodwaters.
Ms Spicer is expecting to have a continuing role if, as announced at Monday evening’s Rochester community meeting, a temporary accommodation village is set up on the site of the Elmore Field Days.
State government ministers were involved in discussions with emergency services, Rochester community leaders and field day management on Monday as options for evacuated residents of the town were investigated.
Residents in Rochester are being asked not to return to their homes until after safety assessments have been completed and up to 100 people who are renting have been issued with notices to vacate because of the same safety concerns.
Ms Spicer said these people would need support and she would be making herself available to residents of the proposed temporary village at Elmore Field Days, which one enthusiastic meeting participant dubbed “Rochester South”.
She has been counselling people at Rochester and has asked members of the Kyabram community, where they can, to pitch in during the clean up, or even “have someone over for dinner”.
Ms Spicer said, while absolutely tragic, the flooding event had a significantly different feel to the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
“This has seen people come together, whereas COVID kept people apart,” she said.
“Some of the kindness from people has been amazing.”
Ms Spicer was at the relief centre the day it was set up (Friday, October 14) and worked on site for the next 11 days.
Working alongside Victorian Emergency Chaplains and then later as a chaplain for police members, she said the influx of people into the centre when it was opened was extraordinary.
As the relief centre population reduced in size she was preparing to return to duties at Kyabram P-12, where several staff and students had been affected by the floods.
She said people coming into the relief centre were looking for re-assurance, having arrived quite shocked and scared.
“What made it bearable for some was the generosity of people, who poured in the door with food and clothing,” she said.
“It was an absolutely amazing response.”
Ms Spicer said the relief centre was very well organised and people “were really loved’’.
She could not put a number on just how many people she spoke to, adding at one point it felt like “the little town of Rochester for a while’’.
People came and went from the relief centre at regular intervals, several moved onto Bendigo at the height of demand for assistance.
“Some of the elderly went to motels. Initially people were on the floor, sleeping on lilos. They now have tents and much more privacy,” she said.
Ms Spicer said the work of staff from Campaspe Shire was amazing.
It was not a new experience for the long-time school chaplain, who was among the longest serving chaplains during the bushfire tragedy of Black Saturday.
For two years she travelled from Kyabram to the communities of the St Andrews and Kinglake area, delivering support from Kyabram and offering her own support during counselling.
She said she would continue to be there for the victims of the flood and hoped the Kyabram community would do the same.
Help at hand: Gilbert Crouch from Echuca with emergency chaplain Liz Spicer and his dog Jacky. He told Ms Spicer people had treated him amazingly. His wife had died in June and leaving his home was very hard. He told Liz he was much calmer now he was in the centre.
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