After 18 months of clearing debris from Cyclone Debbie in QLD, the team from Geographe Marine Salvage and Rescue have finally returned home to Busselton, TV stars.
A reality show will be based on the team’s recovery effort helping victims salvage their belongings after they were hit by the cyclone in 2017.
Geographe Marine Salvage and Rescue director Luke Purdy took a disaster recovery crew from Busselton to Airlie Beach and worked on rotation throughout 18 months helping victims of the cyclone.
The team drove their 8x8 truck across the country - the only one of its kind in Australia - a salvage boat, land cruiser, more than four tonnes of equipment and worked in some of the toughest conditions to help with the cleanup.
Mr Purdy said he had never seen a community get so beaten in all his salvage operations.
He said the people who were devastated by the cyclone were scattered, living out of cardboard boxes and had no water or power for the first couple of weeks they were at Airlie Beach.
“There was a big problem with looters ripping off everything they could, it was really hard times, Woolworths brought emergency food supplies in but people milked all the generators for fuel so all the food went off.
“That was full on, there were police everywhere and we worked with the Australian Army for a while when we first arrived.”
The truck they took over for the cleanup effort had 250 tonne winches on the back and could access places no-one else could, which allowed them to take their equipment into hard to reach locations.
“Our truck was nothing like the Australian Army had, it did everything we wanted it too. We had the Army ask us for a hand to deliver water to a community because it was too hard for them to get there,” he said.
“We put five-tonne of water on the back and did it in one crack.”
Mr Purdy said disaster recovery was one of the most crazy operating procedures you could get.
“Anything goes, they just want the job done, trying to get into an area is sometimes near impossible.”
On a job they completed in QLD, Mr Purdy said it took the team five days just to reach the location before they started the disaster recovery.
“Everything we did there was next level hard, especially the things we recovered towards the end of the 18 months because it had been left there for so long,” he said.
“No-one else would do it because it was too hard, so they would give it to us.”
During the recovery operation, Mr Purdy said they dragged 40-tonne yachts out of mangroves that were 500 metres up hills, then would drag the yachts to water so they could be re-floated and patched onsite.
The team would have to wait for a high tide before they could tow the yacht 30 nautical miles through 60 metres of water before reaching a safe passage.
“We only had a 20 minute window to go into some of these tidal creeks where they had lifters, if you missed that window you were stuffed,” he said.
“We were getting six metre tides, it was full on, the way we operated was a massive learning curve.
“We steamed through some rough seas and pumped through big swells under a 20 minute time frame in places we had never been before.
“We had to wing it everyday and hope for the best.”
A friend Mr Purdy met when he arrived in QLD worked for Channel 7, he told his colleagues that they needed to see the team in action.
“He told them what we were doing was extraordinary, we had people coming up to us who had no money and lost everything, asking us for help, we had to say we would,” he said.
“That is how it all started, helping out the common man who could not help himself.”
Mr Purdy said Channel 7 sent a cameraman to film them for three days who was blown away by the work they were doing.
After returning home to Busselton, around 10 months later, Mr Purdy received a phone call from Channel 7 to say they wanted to make a television series about them.
“I was pretty broken at that point but thought this chance only ever comes up once and I may as well have a crack, so we went back and did it all over again,” he said.
“It was next level, I would wake up in the morning with a camera in my face and they would just watch my day-to-day activities and follow us around.
“It was pretty epic, it will be great to see it come out especially because we are all Busselton crew.”
Looking back, Mr Purdy said the experience was surreal and what they asked them to do was no easy task.
“Everyday we struggled really hard and I think that is what will make it so good, you get to see people who are really desperate and struggling,” he said.
“I knew it would be hard and honestly thought it would not be doable, but we just did one day at a time and kept on keeping on.”
Geographe Marine Salvage and Rescue crew Jayde Towers said it was a fun experience and while it was a bit uncomfortable to have a camera crew following them at first, they got used to it.
“Everyone was emotionally wrecked after it because you were doing all the hard work, then you would have cameras in your face, we had to be on all the time,” she said.
Mr Purdy said in a six week window they drove 6000 kilometres, salvaged eight boats and made a full season of TV, then drove 6000km home with a five-tonne boat on the back.
“It was an epic six weeks,” he said.
The show will be aired on 7Mate from August 14.
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