It's plain to see the anguish on the volunteers' dust-streaked faces as they share stories of helping bushfire victims still living in shipping containers and busted caravans three years on from Black Summer.
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Of a task that still seems too big for any one organisation to complete.
Disaster Relief Australia returned to Cobargo in south-east NSW last week to again assist property owners with the ongoing job of cleaning up following those deadly and devastating bushfires of 2019-20.
Among them are some familiar faces. Volunteers who rallied to the cries for help three years ago and have once again dropped everything in their own lives to assist others.
That includes several Norwegians we first met in 2020 when this reporter had the opportunity to join the crew for a day as we felled burnt trees and cleared properties for grateful but traumatised residents.
However, it's not just that drive to help others in need that brings these DRA volunteers back.
"It's friendship," says Richard "Chief" Lucas.
"We've maintained our strong friendships with a number of us Australian members in DRA and the Norwegians.
"When DRA published plans that they were coming back to Cobargo and managed to elicit some sort of funding, I told them [the Norwegians] and within half an hour that was it - they said they were coming over."
DRA membership manager Dianna Georges put it best when she said the friendships were "forged" by the post-bushfire assistance, with that irony not lost of the team.
"Witnessing traumatic events brings people together and invokes that human spirit to come together and understand without speaking about their own experiences," Dianna said.
"So by helping others, it gives them that sense of purpose and sense of companionship. They're special friendships that are not the same as other friendships that you meet through socialising.
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For Frode Ovedel and Tore Stensland, the return is bittersweet.
The Norwegians get the opportunity to reunite with the close friends made through the DRA's deployments, but in a region they had surely hoped would have seen greater recovery by now.
"There's so much work to do," Frode says.
"We had that feeling when we left, and after another week now we still have the feeling that a lot of people need a lot of help.
"I think maybe when you look at the countryside, it seems green and nice and everything is good, but they are still in deep trouble many people."
Chief agreed it was heartbreaking
"We were working for two elderly ladies yesterday who are living in a shipping container, or Jim and his wife who are living in a garage - they've moved up from a caravan to a garage and nothing else has changed because I went through there three years ago.
"You know, we're a First World country and we've got our old people living like that. It nearly brings me to tears."
No-one would suggest the entire clean-up and resettlement rests on the shoulders of these soot-streaked and sweat-soaked volunteers.
However, they are committed to do what they can in the time available to them.
"We made a pact between us that we would go as hard as we could go and do as much as we can do, make as big an impact as we can," Chief says.
It's really important for people who have gone through disasters to know they're not forgotten.
- DRA membership manager Dianna Georges
Dianna says "it's not the human way" to walk away from such trauma.
"With the devastation that happened here in Cobargo and in all the other fires zones as well, it's that shared witness that brings people together and it forges a connection to the people, and to the land.
"It really does solidify friendships, and understanding, and connection.
"When you've got that consolidated friendship and connection, to walk away and never look back?
"It's not the human way.
"When your heart is here you can't walk away and not come back.
"If it was only about the friendship they could have come as tourists. But they didn't. They came back for a specific purpose to come back to an area that they had left feeling incomplete and left behind.
"It's really important for people who have gone through disasters to know they're not forgotten.
"We made a promise years ago to come back and it's really important for us to fulfill our promise."
Tore says "the whole group left a piece of their heart in Cobargo" three years ago and this return was sure to add to that connection with the area.
A lot of the Cobargo district's heart will also go home with the Norwegians.
"Those two ladies we worked with yesterday, I thought she was going to squash these two she gave them that big of a cuddle," Chief says chuckling at Frode and Tore.
"She said to me, 'you've taken so much mental distress and anguish from us'.
"That and the big smile on her face and then giving these two bear hugs. Hopefully we will leave this gentlemen here today feeling the same way and there's a loop closed for all of us."
More volunteers needed
Disaster Relief Australia is always on the lookout for more volunteers willing to contribute their skills and experience to post-disaster clean-up operations throughout Australia and across the globe.
DRA unites Australian Defence Force veterans, emergency responders and civilians to rapidly deploy disaster relief teams wherever needed.
The organisation also has service veterans' wellbeing at its core, providing them the opportunity to continue to serve communities and in doing so, regain a sense of purpose and identity.
To find out more, visit disasterreliefaus.org
Ben Smyth
I have worked as a journalist since 2005 and am now Editor of Australian Community Media mastheads in Bega, Merimbula and Eden
I have worked as a journalist since 2005 and am now Editor of Australian Community Media mastheads in Bega, Merimbula and Eden
