Yarra Junction’s Alice Underwood has had a world of opportunity opened to her, with the off-grid power provided to her home by retired Queensland electrician Richard Lukoszek up and running.
Lights are on and a fridge is now running for the first time at the property, but the work has only just started.
Alice said she’s so happy and never would have believed this would happen in her wildest dreams.
“It’s a miracle, a miracle guy from Queensland came down and did it, he was such a friendly person to have around, he had good conversations with everybody,” she said.
Mr Lukoszek even went above and beyond while he was on site, even creating a makeshift outdoor shower which is hooked up to a hot water system.
Alice said she was in a good shock it was that amazing.
“Having a fridge for the first time is saving on food costs already, to be able to keep food without it going off, and it’s changed how I shop at the supermarket, I can keep fresh food now and I can make smoothies,” she said.
“It feels like living in a different house, it feels like I’ve moved without moving,”
“My favourite one (appliance) so far is the electric kettle.”
Over his six-week stay, Mr Lukoszek was living in a tent at the Doon Reserve Caravan Park, and at a discounted rate after they heard the story behind his visit.
Alice said it’s very exciting to have more to be done.
“It’s very kind of people to help and friends have come and contributed their efforts, it’s just all thanks to the kindness of other people that it’s getting done,” she said.
“Thank you to everybody who was so interested, who helped and who supported and the people who followed the story too and just said hi and ‘How’s it going’ down the street, there were so many people who were interested in it, I was so surprised.”
Work to restore the primary house on the property, which has already been restumped, is continuing and there are speculative plans of a September return for Mr Lukoszek to fix up some wiring to the small unit Alice is living in while the house is renovated. Currently, an electrical cord is being run across the property to the unit to power only a few outlets.
Alice’s support worker Lisa said it has only just started in a way, but the big thing with the electricity has happened and the shower is an absolute bonus.
“We’ve got to keep the momentum going now to keep the changes continuing and happening because now that Richard’s gone, we could fall into a bit of a lull, but we want to keep that momentum going,” she said.
“I think to power this (the unit) up, and have power points and light fittings and things so they don’t have to run this cord, and they can just go and turn the light on and have enough switches to run whatever they need, I think that’s the next thing because the house is a bit of a while away.”
“He’s (Mr Lukoszek) really like family now, we spoke to him yesterday on the phone and we miss him, he’s still interested, attached and involved even though he’s in Queensland…him and Alice just got on so well, they adored each other and he’s such a lovely man.”
