BEECHMONT residents who have been without power since Thursday last week are slowly having their power restored.
The impact of Tropical Cyclone Alfred has been felt by the small Gold Coast Hinterland community, who faced a frightening three days of strong winds and heavy rain, with road access cut by fallen trees and power lines.
Without reticulated water, the area has the added problem of no power means no running water and sewerage pumps are not operational, unless households have generators.
Power restoration has been an ongoing problem for the past week, with some areas being restored and cut again as other problems occur in the network, including a pole in Lower Beechmont which caught fire this morning.
Scenic Rim Regional Council Mayor Tom Sharp and Local Disaster Management Group (LDMG) Chair and Division Three Councillor Steve Moriarty met with residents in the aftermath of the weather event, assuring them that they were actively advocating for the Beechmont community at every opportunity.
“Every time I’ve had the opportunity at the State meetings, if I’ve mentioned Tamborine Mountain, I’ve included Beechmont and my catch cry has become Tamborine Mountain and Beechmont,” said Cr Moriarty.
“You guys up here are equally impacted in practically every event as they are up there.”
Both communities can become isolated in any disaster, with limited road access. Beechmont has only two roads – one leading up to the plateau from Canungra and the other from the Gold Coast. These can quickly become blocked by fallen trees.
When the LDMG discussed assistance from the army, Cr Moriarty was quick to advocate for the two mountain communities.
“Detective Superintendent Mark Thompson, who was the acting the acting inspector for the disasters said, “Steve, we’ve got Bushmasters from Defence, where do you want them to go?”
“I said, if you can open up Tamborine Mountain and then go up Beechmont and open up Beechmont Road, that would be a great help.”
Falling trees has been an ongoing issue for the Beechmont residents, with many using their own chainsaws to help restore access to mountain roads.
Skip bins had been placed at Graceleigh Park for residents and Providence Farm Hall had opened for set hours during the day for residents to charge devices and gather together.
While some residents expressed frustration with communication and the lack of a space for the community to seek refuge, many thanked the Councillors for their assistance.
Local resident Lou Rankin said she felt the response was swift given the circumstances.
“Even getting the bins here so quickly was a great help,” she said.
“After the 2019 bushfires we weren’t able to get skip bins for weeks and it wasn’t until the CWA paid for one that the Council sent some up here. This time has been much better.”
Cr Moriarty thanked the Beechmont community for heeding the warnings in the lead up to the cyclone and for being prepared.
“There are a number of community people up here who have reached out to me and made contact with me throughout the event,” he said.
“You have some really good community leaders up here and there’s some people who are really standing up for the community all the time and I just want to thank them for their contribution.”
“People like the local rural fire brigade – as soon as we could get access up the mountain, I dropped in and what I saw was Beechmont Rural Fire Brigade coordinating brigades from Biddaddaba, Birnam and Canungra had been called up. The event was really still in progress. The rain hadn’t stopped and they they’d been tasked up here and the Beechmont guys were sending them to different locations to clear open driveways.”
Cr Moriarty explained the move by Tamborine Mountain to create a community led disaster management group and said he hoped this model might be recreated by other communities in the Scenic Rim.
Beech Mountain Association member Matt Stapleton said that he was already looking at this process and, along with several others at the meeting, expressed their interest to move forward with the project as soon as possible.
At the time of the meeting, held on the morning of 12 March, neither the Mayor or Cr Moriarty had been able to access their own homes, with Cr Moriarty flooded out and Mayor Sharp’s access blocked by fallen trees.
