Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Townsville did not cop the worst of Cyclone Yasi, but the city was impacted. The biggest danger we have at the moment is the piles and piles of mulch catching fire. Homes were damaged, tens of thousands of residents were without power for a number of days, thousands of trees were down and businesses were forced to close for days on end. But we knew, in our town, that the residents further up north in Tully, Tully Heads, Hull Heads and Cardwell were the ones that were impacted greatly. So we rallied as a community to help those people up north. The outpouring was remarkable, with fundraisers and appeals held all over the place, and we are still going forward with them.

The Townsville Bulletin, the Rotary clubs of North Queensland and my office as the federal member teamed up to run a Cyclone Yasi community appeal. Seven pallets of shopping—dry biscuits, tea, dog food, cat food, toys, two-minute noodles and other stuff that could be used straight away by the people in those cyclone affected areas which were still without power—were loaded up and sent up there free of charge. The people who donated were pensioners, students and people from every walk of life. I would like to congratulate the Townsville Bulletin and the Rotary Club Townsville, and especially Leon and Dianne, the staff of Universal 7 Day Hardware in Townsville.