Length
01:41
Summary
Reclink Australia has been helping Mallacoota residents re-engage with their environment following the 2019–20 Eastern Victorian bushfires.
Transcript
[10 to 12 female surf class members wearing Reclink-branded orange splash tops following the instructor’s routine, practising their moves and paddling out on their boards in the ocean]
Callista Cooper, Sport and Recreation Manager, Regional East, Reclink Australia: Emergency Recovery Victoria has funded Reclink Australia to provide some sport and recreation activities for our communities in Far East Gippsland as we recover from bushfires and the COVID pandemic. Following the bushfires we found the environment was so different, um there was a lot of trauma for people, seeing the environment the way it was; a lot of people found healing through the ocean and I think through our surfing group we’ve really been able to reconnect people; make people feel really comfortable in the ocean and really happy to be living here as well. What I think has really surprised me about this group is that a lot of them turned up, some of them locals who have lived here all their lives and have never been surfing before; and we provided that environment. We created, you know, really safe spaces for them, heard their fears, um, yeah really understood where they were coming from and from that we could walk beside them and teach them about the ocean to make them feel really comfortable. So now they’ve not only gone surfing with us every Friday but they’ve actually gone and got their bronze medallion and over the summer they were patrolling with the local surf life saving club in a volunteer capacity. So, I just think that’s such a wonderful outcome to go from not going in the water because they were too scared to now, they’re patrolling and looking out for other community members.
[Emergency Recovery Victoria logo]
[End transcript]
Updated