Woodgate Beach community members will be better prepared in times of disaster thanks to the installation of an emergency resilience generator.
The community will now have access to the generator through a partnership between Woodgate Club and Bundaberg Regional Council.
Woodgate Club was successful in securing $10,000 in Bundaberg Regional Council’s 2022/23 Partnerships and Sponsorships Program for the installation of the emergency generator which was donated by local Peter Trott.
Woodgate Club president Paul Rogerson said the coastal region was grateful for the vital piece of equipment, which would benefit the whole community in times of need.
“Woodgate is a very, very close community,” Paul said.
“During 2019-2020 they felt very vulnerable – they were worried about where to go, what to do.
“This will enable the community not to just build a better plan for their safety but also assist Bundaberg Regional Council and their disaster committee to have solid base here in our community.”
Paul said it was recognised some years ago the club's previous generator did not carry the needs of the club or the community.
“We needed to upgrade especially during the fires of 2019 and 2020,” he said.
“We knew we had to upgrade and it was an absolute pleasure, for my committee and the previous committee, to work with Bundaberg Regional Council to bring this to fruition today.
“It’s a facility that is needed not just by the club in times of power outage, but it’s a facility that has been identified by the community that we need assistance in times of strife down here.”
Paul said the Woodgate Beach community had been working together since the fires of 2019-20 to ensure they would be prepared for the next emergency.
“In times of emergency people don’t just need somewhere to lie down and say ‘here I am and I am waiting’, they need somewhere to connect and somewhere to hold conversations, they need somewhere to debrief even during the emergency.
“A problem shared is a problem halved, so they say.
“We want to express our gratitude to Bundaberg Regional Council, without their assistance and without their financial backing we would not have been able to achieve what we have achieved now which is an uninterrupted power supply for this facility.”
Local Disaster Management Group (LDMG) Chair Mayor Jack Dempsey said the installation of the emergency resilience generator was a great outcome for the Woodgate community and the Bundaberg Region.
“A big thank you to the Woodgate Club, all of their members who have been able to work in partnership with the Bundaberg Regional Council, to secure a facility to now have a generator upgraded for times of need.
“This is another way of making sure we protect the community.
“This generator at the Woodgate Club ensures we can give our residents a little bit of peace of mind.
“In previous times of disaster, the Woodgate community has been cut off from the whole of the region and at times of disasters the only access we've had was to be able to then facilitate coming in from the ocean.
“So, at times when this community becomes isolated we now have another piece of infrastructure with this generator here, it gives us another asset to be able to make sure that community can stay safe in times of isolation.”
Bundaberg Regional Council’s 2022/23 Partnerships and Sponsorships Program Round 1 funded $10,000 towards the installation costs of an emergency resilience generator.
A provision of the funding is in the event of a disaster, Council would seek a partnership arrangement for disaster management to include Woodgate Club Inc in disaster planning alongside the Woodgate Community Hall.
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poor little Buxton, a single wire feed and if that goes down for several days, we loose everything. how about a unit for Buxton. i suggested this several years back.