Just surviving each day is still an ordeal

By Kath Gannaway
LEN SUND has nicknamed his property, “the dead centre of Marysville”.
Their family home survived, but the Sunds are surrounded by cleared blocks.
Within walking distance, the main street, which used to have a pub, a general store, a petrol station, all the places you ‘catch up’ with people is a project in waiting.
Progress is too slow in terms of rebuilding – both homes and businesses – and he says life has become too hard for some people.
Many are buying in towns not unlike Marysville, but often far away.
The struggle of living with no infrastructure, and dealing with bureaucracy, is forcing people to rethink whether they stay or return.
His neighbours have gone. They planned to rebuild and had put a shed on the block but were then told they couldn’t build on the same spot – they had to build further back.
“He just picked up his shed, bought land somewhere else with a house on it and put the block on the market,” Mr Sund said.
“They were good neighbours and it disappoints us.”
Another couple, also good neighbours, lost their lives in the fire.
“We’re still here in the town, but 90 per cent of the people we used to see are now in the temporary village and we just don’t see them any more. You used to catch up at the shops, or the petrol station, or the pub.”
Just mowing the lawns becomes an ordeal if you haven’t planned far enough ahead so that needing petrol makes the job an ordeal.
Driving to Buxton only to find the pumps out of order then having to drive to Alexandra is clearly testing even for someone who counts himself lucky when he sees the people he’s known for more than 60 years living in the temporary village, which is two kilometres out of town along the Buxton Road.
He notes it’s eight months down the track and the town still doesn’t have a supermarket.
“They’ve brought the museum, and Redrops (Foodworks) are moving in to that… but it hasn’t eventuated.
“You have all these committees and it’s got very confusing. There’s a feeling around that nothing is happening and what is happening, some people are not happy with,” Mr Sund said.
He’s a member of the Marysville Golf Club which would like to build a hotel/convention centre.
The club could do it but it is outside the township development overlay which sees those sorts of works best done in Marysville central.
It’s the sort of bureaucracy which he and others feel is putting the brakes on projects which will not only bring people back to the town but also provide jobs and boost morale. There are some signs of progress, however.
Fragas Restaurant has moved back into a real building – one of a group of shops that was not destroyed. Pat’s Hairdressing, L. J. Hooker and Country Touch have added their commitment to Fragas’s with a sign declaring “We’re coming back”. But there are many other businesses that are treading water and running out of puff. The chatter around the town is that something needs to happen, and it needs to happen faster.
That there needs to be less ribbon cutting spin and a renewed commitment to cutting red tape.