The Ruffy Public Hall has become a makeshift ‘free’ supermarket for those in need and a sanctuary for locals to come together and support each other.
Photo by
Bree Harding
Ruffy is the tiny Victorian town a hungry and unforgiving fire tried to wipe completely off the map on January 8.
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While it decimated land, livestock, wildlife and infrastructure, it did not extinguish the spirit of the people.
Inside one of the tiny town’s only two buildings that were spared the bushfire’s fury, a team of selfless and determined locals is working hard to hold the community close and together in its wake.
The Ruffy Public Hall has become a bustling hub of support, with many hands on deck to provide meals, supplies, information, ears to listen and arms to hold each other after the catastrophe that blindsided residents of the town and surrounding areas.
The 130-plus-year-old hall has in the past played host to theatrical performances, bands, weddings, christenings and funerals, but now it has a new purpose, and a new nickname: ‘The Ruffy IGA’.
Items are free to take for those in need.
Photo by
Bree Harding
Trestle tables are loaded with non-perishable food, toiletries, pet food and other essential items free for the taking for those in need.
“If we didn’t have these two spaces (the hall and the CFA shed), it would be a very, very different relief and recovery for the community,” volunteer Colleen Furlanetto said.
“Could you imagine trying to bring a community together and you don’t have any infrastructure?
“You’d be under a tent in a dusty paddock that would be all black, it would be a very different environment. There is some form of normality.”
The hub does not need any more pet food for the time being.
Photo by
Bree Harding
While Ruffy’s population sits around 160, the hub is supporting many more from areas including Terip Terip, Creightons Creek, Gooram and Gobur.
“This fire knew no borders and neither is our provision of support, because it’s not just about Ruffy, it’s about the whole Tablelands,” Colleen said.
The News visited in what hub volunteer and Ruffy CFA community safety co-ordinator Felicity Sloman called the most relaxed phase the hub has had since the fire.
She said managing the situation had been like trying to contain an octopus in a string bag.
“This is the fire and then there’s all these tentacles coming out and you’re trying to push them back in, that’s how hard it’s been,” Felicity said.
“Trying to manage this whole thing, there’s so many parts to it: hay for cattle and sheep feed, providing water, getting power back on, internet on, dealing with the mental health issues of people who have lost their homes, their livelihoods, because mostly they’re primary producers or small business people.”
The volunteers are community members who’ve put their hands up to help despite having never done anything like it on this scale before.
“It’s feeling a little bit more manageable just in the past few days,” Felicity said.
“We had an Australia Day lunch here (at the hall).
“From that moment on it feels like it’s settled a little bit.”
The informal event drew a crowd of almost 150 people.
While small, Ruffy’s community is a strong force when it comes together like that.
Ruffy has a strong history of supporting those in need.
Photo by
Bree Harding
A chart inside its CFA shed — the second of the two buildings that survived the inferno — tallies the small town’s annual contributions to the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal raised during its own local Good Friday event throughout the years.
More than $35,000 has been donated to help the plight of sick Australian children by the town, which has just 64 mailboxes and around 160 who call the postcode home.
Its own generosity knows no bounds, and now — as it will well into the future — it needs the same sentiment of support financially and practically from others.
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