Thank you for helping us cleaning up. It was a great support for us and we are proud to be Germans just as your are still in your heart. Sorry Elke, you forgot to mention in your report,that your group rolled up nearly 17 km of burnt fences. It was unbelievable. Thank you very much. We will be in Adelaide for the next German Schuetzenfest.
Otto Arnd and Helga Enneking
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Dear Members,
In my last message to you I made mention of the bush fires around Port Lincoln early in February of this year. At that time I did not think that members of our club or myself would have anything to do with this, except of feeling sorry for those who lost loved ones, or had their property destroyed. Well, I was quite wrong. About one month ago I received a phone call from Minister Jane Lomax-Smith who had visited the area. One family she had visited was a German couple who had run a Bed and Breakfast and farm at McKechnie Springs ,about 8 km before Port Lincoln. They had suffered extensive damage during the fire with the total loss of their house, most of their stock, outbuildings and fences of the 2700 acres. Lost were 1400 sheep, one cow, 3 pet milk goats. The only thing that remained was a small cottage. The Minister asked if there was anything that the club could do to assist these people. Well, to cut a long story short, I am sitting at McKechnie Springs writing this report.
Fourteen members of our association made the long journey to help Otto and Helga Enneking and their son Arndt clear their land of 100 km of burnt out fencing and trees. Backbreaking work rolling up the wire, but our group got stuck into it willingly.
Alice Rost and I left Adelaide at about 9.30 on Friday the 11th, arriving at McKechnie Springs at approximately 4.30 p.m. We were the cooks for the weekend. Helmut Miller, Heinrich Ritter, Heinz Egeler and Hanno Herrman also travelled up on the Friday, arriving at the property shortly after us, as did Mick Sturmann from the Elizabeth German Club. Expecting to really rough it during the weekend we were pleasantly surprised to see that an amenities block had been completed earlier that day, which meant we had a kitchen, shower and toilet. A camp site had been built up with ten brand new tents, with two camp stretchers in each. The only thing that had not been erected was a larger tent which was to serve as our mess tent. I had arranged this through the local police commander Superintendent Malcolm Schluter. From the recovery centre, the volunteer co-ordinator for the disaster, David Hendy arrived shortly after us, to arrange for three men to come over to erect this tent. What a sight to see, David Hendy, wife Gayle, the three volunteers and our five members putting up this tent. Instructions were on hand, but they did not make much sense. About 1 hour later, the mess tent was up, but only after Gayle Hendy suggested they work on the colour coding of the poles.
Alice Rost and I made ourselves known to Helga Enneking then, we had met Otto at our arrival and two German friends of theirs, Heinrich and Wilma Schmidt. This couple had planned to fly out to Australia, the day after the fire. On hearing about the fire they had still continued with their plan, and since arriving in Australia have been with their friends, giving them not only emotional support, but also helping with the clearing up of damage caused by the fire. On the first night, after a BBQ it was very early to bed for all of us.
The rest of our group arrived at 4.30 a.m. Trevor Dennert, and his wife Debbie helped organise the trip, son Marcus and Garry Wright left from our club at 9.10p.m. in a Ute from Trevor’s work. They were followed by a bus driven by Manfred Wojtasik, which the Multicultural Community Council of S.A. lent to us free of charge. His passengers were Yola Koeble and her son Jason and David Scherer who is not a member of our club yet but soon will be. You may ask why we needed the bus. Well to put it mildly, a number of our members let us down. Originally 22 told me that they were coming up to assist. One was sick, so I can excuse that, but others only advised me one to two days beforehand that they were not coming and some just did not bother turning up on the Friday night. You can just imagine how I felt. When we started organising the trip, all were told that if they put their name on the list, they were expected to honour their commitment as I had to organise catering for them, plus advise the Volunteer Organisers of their names, so that they would be covered by insurance. Considering that those who did not turn up were the younger ones, I must congratulate the four of our older members who came up on the Friday for their hard work, plus all of the others.
On the Saturday, every one was up at 7.30 (some with only a few hours sleep) for breakfast, a quick photo session with the local media, and then they were split into three groups went off to work. Dave, Heinrich and Helmut were group leaders, as they all had knowledge of what was required. Also going out with them were Aiden McDermot, Brian Courtenay, employees at McKechnie Springs, Heinrich Schmidt and Otto and Arndt. Midday meals were delivered to them at the work site. On arriving back at about 5p.m. that evening, all had a quick shower followed by a BBQ tea. David and Gayle Hendy joined us that evening.
I had taken one of the German flag banners from the Schützenfest with me and all of our volunteers signed it, and I presented it to the Enneking Family, who thought it was a great idea and stated that they will display it proudly.
Sunday it was up once again at 7.30, breakfast and then off to work by 8.30. Yola had stayed back at the camp on Saturday helping Alice and me prepare the salads etc for the evening, but decided that on the Sunday she would go out with the men and help them. At 4p.m. all groups returned to the camp, had showers. They left one hour later for the long drive home. Those left behind had another BBQ meal in the evening with the Ennekings and Schmidts and left between 9 and 9.30 on the Monday for the long trip home.
On a number of occasions the Ennekings told us how much they appreciated the assistance we have given them and I can only say that I am very proud of those who had made the effort to help out our fellow countrymen and women.
A big thank you must be extended to Perry’s Bakery Pty Ltd of Kilkenny for its generous donation of bread for the weekend and to D’oro Distributors Pty Ltd for groceries and smallgoods and to Standom Smallgoods Butchers for smallgoods.
On another note, I must say that I was very disappointed by the lack of numbers at our 119th Anniversary. Only about 70 people turned up – and I must wonder where the rest of our members were. How often have I said to keep the club going we need the support of our members? Please support the functions we put on for you. The Association supports you and the groups within the club, so please do your bit and support it. Remember it is your club, take some pride in it and come to the functions.
Elke Pfau
President