It’s been about four months since an intense storm left a trail of uprooted trees and fallen branches across Belconnen suburbs. Since then, local crews and contractors have worked tirelessly to clear debris and clean up impacted suburbs, resulting in some impressive statistics.

The workers have:

• created about 10,000 cubic metres of high-quality mulch for distribution to schools for use in garden beds and green spaces;
• processed another estimated 10,000 cubic metres of wood chips for distribution to shared green spaces and garden beds across Canberra;
• created a combined total of mulch and wood chips sufficient to fill five Olympic swimming pools;
• completed an average of 200 jobs per week since the storm began, which is over double their normal weekly averages; and
• addressed over 100 damaged trees in each of the hardest hit suburbs including Charnwood, Hawker, Higgins, Holt, Macgregor and Melba.

With the project near completed, it’s time to meet one of the team members that led the clean-up efforts following the storm.

_{Rocky leading by example for the rest of his team}

Andrew, fondly known by his crew as ‘Rocky’, spent his childhood preparing for his future career.

“I used to climb trees all the time as a kid. My mum would worry but always say I was destined for a career in trees. Now I am paid to do it every day,” Rocky said.

It’s this passion for trees that saw Rocky lead his team in the aftermath of the storm and address the more than 4000 requests for help; more than double the total yearly average of requests received by Access Canberra.

“Belconnen has lots of great native trees. In some suburbs like Higgins and Holt, there were almost 250 trees we needed to address,” Rocky said.

“We had teams from different depots and areas of government, including the Emergency Services Agency and ACT Parks and Conservation, come together to support the clean-up across 25 suburbs. It was a real challenge to catch up so everyone jumping in made a big difference.”

_{Rocky and his team in Belconnen earlier this year}

Rocky believes a leader is only as good as their team, with many of his team supporting the hailstorm response in 2020; the worst hailstorm to hit an urban area in Australia since 1999.

“I am very proud of my team who have worked in very difficult conditions,” Rocky said.

“We have had to manage injuries and fatigue. You can only plan for so much, after that it’s reactive and you just do your best.”

Canberrans who notice storm damage that may have been missed, or where more damage has occurred on public land, can let us know via www.act.gov.au/fixmystreet or by calling Access Canberra on 13 22 81.