Water, bread, shampoo: The frontline in corporate bushfire relief

Elouise Fowler and James Fernyhough

Jan 6, 2020

AFR

Since the New Year’s Eve’s fires which destroyed lives along the eastern seaboard, small and large businesses have stumped up millions in cash and services as the federal government scrambles to establish a national agency to coordinate the relief effort.

When given the all-clear to enter the danger zones on Sunday, supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles trucked water and essential food to hastily built evacuation centres on the NSW south coast and north east Victoria.

Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci said the supermarket’s efforts to support bushfire relief will ramp up this summer.

Coles regional manager for the south coast and the Australian Capital Territory, John Appleby. 

“It is not possible to do enough to help these communities,” he said.

It’s still early in the fire season and there’s still a lot to do.”

Rival Coles has donated 28 pallets of food and essentials via Foodbank to the Cobargo, Bega and Bermagui evacuation centres. It has trucked four pallets of fruit and vegetables for animals at the Mogo Zoo.

Bread and chickens

Coles regional manager for the south coast and the Australian Capital Territory, John Appleby, said he and his staff at Batemans Bay baked thousands of loaves of bread and cooked hundreds of roast chickens to feed firefighters and evacuees.

“We were baking over 24 hours for emergency services, the evacuation centre, and customers on Sunday when it became safe to open the store after the danger warning on Saturday,” he said.

We baked 14,000 loaves of bread, which is 167,000 slices.”

Since the fires started in November, Woolworths has donated $1 million to the Salvation Army bushfire appeal and has trucked 132 pallets of drinking water and food which can be cooked at campsites, such as instant noodles and baked beans, to major evacuation centres on the NSW South Coast in Bega, Merimbula and  Batemans Bay.

Shampoo, suncream

Woolworths managing director Claire Peters said more than 200 pallets were making their way to the NSW South Coast from Sydney stacked with food and personal hygiene products, such as shampoo, tampons and suncream.

Ms Peters also instructed store managers to use their store credit cards with $20,000 limits, to give customers free water, suncream and hygiene products if they don’t have any cash.

“Anyone can walk through that store without needing permission from head office to provide products from water, sun care, hygiene, whatever people need.”

“And as the week goes on, obvious areas like Bega, will have an increased limit,” she said.

Major banks, telcos, airlines and energy companies have donated millions in cash and services to assist the relief effort across the country as Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a new national agency for fire-affected people on Monday, after receiving criticism for rejecting a $25 million request to buy aerial water bombers to better manage fires and failing to order an early deployment of the military help evacuate and support communities.

Qantas announced on Monday it would donate $1 million to bushfire relief and recovery charities and will continue to carry thousands of firefighters and tonnes of equipment around the country, including on more than 50 charter flights.

Virgin is also providing freight space to charities and community organisations.

From Monday, Telstra said it would make its nationwide payphone network available to provide free local, national and standard mobile calls. Wi-fi spots attached to payphones would also offer free internet.

That built on a previously announced assistance package in bushfire zones, where customers had been given access to free and interim services during the recovery period.

Early estimates from Gippsland and northern Victoria are that up to 13,000 beef and dairy cows have been lost to fire, with the heaviest casualties among one- and two-year-old cows.

Telstra has also said it would not charge registered volunteer firefighters for their mobile phone usage over December and January. It also announced on Monday that in affected areas, it would provide unlimited access to certain websites, including those of the fire services, the ABC, and the Bureau of Meteorology.

Optus said it would join Telstra and not bill volunteer firefighters for their mobile services for December and January.

Optus said 25 mobile sites had been affected by the fires, seven of which were in Victoria, and 18 on the NSW South Coast. It said six of the NSW sites had been destroyed in the fires.

Telstra did not disclose how many towers or exchanges were down, but a spokesman said power and network technicians were “working closely with emergency services and power authorities to ensure our teams have access to areas of need as soon as they are deemed safe to enter, or under escort”.

The four major banks injected cash into the relief effort too.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia and ANZ upped their donations to $1 million on Monday, while Westpac beat the pair with a $1.5 million pledge.

National Australia Bank set up a similar $1 million fund on Friday to help its customers and staff displaced by the fires.

Energy retailer AGL announced on Monday it would help thousands of volunteer firefighters by providing them with $150 credit per customer on their electricity or gas bills.