Forged in the flames

By Justin Robertson
WHEN the fires of Black Saturday erupted, the Rotary Club of Pakenham stepped up.
The then president Tim Ahern immediately rose to the challenge.
He drove up there and became part of the recovery process by building brand new fences for farming properties that had their fence line destroyed by the raging inferno.
“The fire ran along the side of the roads and damaged all the fence lines,” Rotary Club of Pakenham member for the 20 years, Jim Armstrong said. “Farmers had stock and animals roaming about and weren’t kept inside their property anymore, so Tim went up there personally to help out.”
Mr Ahern eventually rallied local Rotary clubs from Cranbourne and Mornington and set about the arduous task of repairing a damaged fence line than ran for kilometres to secure the farms.
“Because Tim was up there so often, he was then given a co-ordinator’s role assisting other volunteers up there at the Labertouche Hall and fire station,” Mr Armstrong said. “Then at a later stage the Pakenham club got involved with the Labertouche School.”
Groups of Rotarians then commenced a series of working bees to restore the school’s lush gardens and trees.
“Although the school was not burnt the trees around the boundary were, and, there was damage to their gardens,” Mr Armstrong said. “We took plants up there, replanted trees, made gardens, got their vegie garden going again and built them a compost bin.”
The club was also involved in assisting the Upper Beaconsfield recovery and organised bikes for all the kids who lost their bicycles in the fire. Later on that year, the club also built a fire refuge for future disasters in the shape of an igloo, which is now the cricket ground.
“There was nothing like it at the stage of the fire, which is why we built it,” Mr Armstrong said. “It’s now a community centre and has been absorbed into the cricket club’s pavilion.”
Eugene Drossaert, who worked as a shire engineer at the time, organised the building permits for the igloo refuge and supervised construction.
“It’s a credit to the club,” Mr Armstrong said. “Most Rotarians were up there on weekends helping out with the construction and just lending a hand anyway they could.”