Located at Nymboida Camping and Canoeing, the big shed offered many residents a safe place to stay following the catastrophic bushfires which devastated the region in 2019.
On January 24, the community came together to celebrate it’s official opening after the NSW Government invested $200000 through the Infrastructure Grants Program to upgrade the building, including an updated kitchen, covered deck, and sliding glass doors.
Laena Stephenson has been volunteering at Nymboida Camping and Canoeing for the past nine years.
During the official opening, she said improvements to the building would make it more marketable and improve the community’s enterprise.
“In 2019 when we came together in a time of crisis, we demonstrated what an effective, dynamic, and caring community can do, working together in the face of adversity,” she said.
“Nymboida Camping and Canoeing became the help hub.
“Working out of a makeshift kitchen in the big shed, we fed two meals a day for up to 50 people for a month.
“We housed locals in the cabins, and very importantly, Nymboida Camping and Canoeing provided a space for people to come and share their experiences and stories with others who understood.
“Combining the resources of the Nymboida Community Hall and Nymboida Camping and Canoeing, we were able to store and distribute the incredible amount of donations that flowed in, and host large meetings and smaller help sessions with a variety of organisations, government departments, and individuals available to us.
“In 2019, people were coming to the centre as the fires approached Nymboida, and we had to send them on to Coutts Crossing.
“It wasn’t safe here.
“In a future fire event, and all the science says there will be more, we could welcome people evacuating their homes.”
Ms Stephenson said the big shed upgrade along with the improvements to the Nymboida Community Hall, will give the village and the surrounding communities safer places to gather and enable them to function better in any emergency.
“They say the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time,” she said.
“The big shed upgrade was a huge chunk we got through, thanks to the NSW Governments Infrastructure Grants Program.
“We’ll keep nibbling away at the rest of the elephant.
“We’re constantly proving ourselves as a business run by the community, for the community, capable of implementing grants, and we’ll apply for more.
“Despite the challenges we’ve faced, we’re still here in Nymboida, and we will keep moving forward.”
This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 22 February 2023.
