Broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Bush Telegraph on March 31, 2010.
How would you feel if a tree crashed into your house leaving you trapped in there with no power, no running water, or even a mobile phone for a week? That’s exactly what happened to Guy Fletchere-Davies during cyclone Ului in Queensland’s north.
Nicky Redl trekked out to his remote property in the Eungella forest west of Mackay, armed with a recorder – and a loaf of bread.
TRANSCRIPT:
(Sound of footsteps)
NICKY REDL: I’m just making my way over big puddles, fallen tree trunks and all sorts of half chopped up branches.
Obviously the SES has already been at work here, because you can see a lot of work half done, branches have been chopped, but they haven’t been removed yet. So they are all over the road, and it’s quite obvious why nobody would be able to get through here.
The creek right next to the road is very full, and it’s flowing quite fast. No, nobody could get out of here. There is just a really big tree trunk right across the pathway here. And, there is a house, beautiful, I think I have nearly arrived.
Hello! Guy!
(Sound of dog barking)
GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Ho, Jay!
NICKY REDL: How are you going?
(Barking)
GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Lovely. I didn’t think you’d make it.
NICKY REDL: (laughs) I didn’t think I would make it either.
(Barking)
GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Hey Jay. He won’t hurt you, by the way. He’s only a little puppy.
NICKY REDL: I brought some bread.
GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Thank you very much for that.
NICKY REDL: Oh gee, so that’s the tree that has nearly come into your house.
GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Well, that’s the one that is towering over the top of the house. And as it comes down, it’s starting to bury the roof, as it sinks more into the roof. So they reckon there is somewhere between 8 and 10 tons over us, which is hanging out the other side of the house.
NICKY REDL: That’s reassuring, isn’t it.
GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Very (laughs).
(cluttering of cups)
Okay. One sugar, one tea bag. Hot water coming up.
NICKY REDL: So you are here with no running water, you are still kind enough to offer me a cup of tea, when did the electricity run out and when did you stop having running water?
GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: The electricity went down at eleven o’clock Saturday night and the cyclone hit us just after one o’clock. The dog had disappeared with all the noise, frightened to death, came back and jumped into bed with me about ten minutes later, covered in leeches, would you believe.
We bled together through the night listening to the thumping and banging of trees crashing around us – there’re over 50 trees on the driveway down.
Plus this 80 foot giant leaning on my house, not to mention the fig tree which is over 100 foot high and God knows how many tons it weighs, but it was actually a living garden. It’s full of bird nest fern, orchids, it’s now in three pieces on the ground, blocking the highway.
As you stand by it, it comes up virtually to shoulder height. And it’s sat there and we are trapped behind it. I can’t get out.
The tree has come through the pump house, it’s drained a 10,000 liter tank that’s on top of the hill there. So all the water is gone. Electricity only came back on yesterday, good old Ergo. Telstra was the day before.
NICKY REDL: You’ve also lost quite a few lovely trees around here that you planted?
GUY FLETCHERE-DAVIES: Oh, this place was just something else. And everybody who comes over, we’ve had the bird watching people up here … because this is the area for the Eungella honey eater. It only lives within 35 square kilometers in the world.
And I’ve had people up here from Sydney, and they’ve actually sat out there on the patio, I made them a cup of tea and toasted raisin bread. And they sat there, and they come through at 8 o’clock in the morning and about 4 o’clock at night they were almost able to reach out and touch him, because the birds aren’t frightened here, you know, they don’t see anybody.
So yes, it’s shattering, actually. And all my rhododendrons are drowning up there with wet feet. I’m sort of living from day to day at the moment and I don’t want to think about next week, because I don’t think I can handle it, you know.
I’m 72 now, for goodness sake. I’ve worked hard here for six years and it was really starting to show.
And look, it might get back there. The Tropics are extraordinary, things grow very quickly here. But you’ve seen some of the holes it has knocked in the forest.
When you go back to the gate, if you can look back here where the top of the forest continues up the hill, it’s like a giant has just reached out and grabbed a 30 meter circular section of the forest, here and there up the hill side, and just ripped the tops of the trees out.
They don’t twist, they just snap off. And you’ve got this 15, 20 foot stump there and the top of the tree is gone, dumped somewhere else.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE: That’s Guy Fletchere-Davies speaking to Nicky Redl inside his house in the Eungella forest west of Mackay after cyclone Ului just did the most extraordinary amount of damage not only to his premises but the forest around him.
And since that interview, Guy’s driveway has been cleared and a local tree lopper has finally agreed to get that tree off his house.
What an amazing story of survival, and the dog and him in bed with leeches? They bled together. That was beautiful, wasn’t it.
