Fire destroyed my clubs HQ (down-under)

[Sundowner]

Hi Folks,

I mentioned in another thread that I have an interest in Vintage Farm Engines and tractors as well as Vintage Cars. The club I belong to, MATAMA, has our headquarters in an old Historic Village called "Old Mogo Town", not far from where I live. We had a big slab timber and iron shed there full of all sorts of machinery and was open to the public. Once a week a group of retired members, myself included, met there to chew the fat, argue about politics, women, religion etc and to restore and preserve machinery. This group call themselves, the "Mogo Old Oilers" https://matama.weebly.com/moos.html

On New years Eve one of the massive fires tore through Old Mogo Town and completely destroyed everything our club owns.
I've attached photos showing what's left of the shed machinery and our tools.
Its not pretty, but if you'd like to see more photos of the damage, click here https://matama.weebly.com/surveying-the-damage.html

Some of the Machinery has been classified as recoverable, including a 1904 6HP York, the only one of its kind in Australia and the first internal combustion engine to come to the area. In order to raise funds to start down this long slow and expensive path, yesterday, I built a "Go Fund Me" page...
https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help- ... are-flow-1
I need your help with this on 2 points. One, I have absolutely NO social Media connections and I hope that you folk can help out by placing this link on your facebook, twitter and instagram pages please.

The other is should you feel you'd like to help out directly, then any donation would be very, very welcome. You can see how to do so here.... https://matama.weebly.com/project-phoenix.html

Thanks & Cheers,
Rob

PS; I thank my lucky stars. We are all safe as is the SPRINT
We had to evacuate once and were on standby to leave on 2 other times, but we had no damage. Unlike several friends, who have lost houses, sheds, business's etc.

[NickMorgan]

Wow! I am really sorry to read about this. You must be heart-broken. These fires are really terrifying.
I am pleased to hear that your house has survived in tact.
I hope that you and your colleagues are able to piece much of the machinery back together and build a new building. It looked like it was a great place.

[Sundowner]

Wow! I am really sorry to read about this. You must be heart-broken. These fires are really terrifying.
I am pleased to hear that your house has survived in tact.
I hope that you and your colleagues are able to piece much of the machinery back together and build a new building. It looked like it was a great place.

Hi Nick,
Thanks for your good wishes.
Yes, it was a great place. The public always learned a lot when they visited our shed and we Old Oilers always had a good time there.
Our Post Xmas party was due to be held there tomorrow. Obviously that wont happen now, but previous ones were fantastic.
Again, Thank You.
Cheers,
Rob

[gmsclassics]

It is so sad to see history being lost, let's hope you have the ability to restore at least the important parts as well as rebuild somewhere to sit and have a yarn!

It has been all over the news in NZ, day after day, but it really came home to us a week or so ago the magnitude of the fires when the smoke turned the whole of Auckland orange. It was quite unnerving and eerie to see, especially when we realise the distance it had travelled as we are a three and a half hour direct flight away.

Hope all goes well. Geoff
This photo was around midday in the height of summer

[Sundowner]

It is so sad to see history being lost, let's hope you have the ability to restore at least the important parts as well as rebuild somewhere to sit and have a yarn!

It has been all over the news in NZ, day after day, but it really came home to us a week or so ago the magnitude of the fires when the smoke turned the whole of Auckland orange. It was quite unnerving and eerie to see, especially when we realise the distance it had travelled as we are a three and a half hour direct flight away.

Hope all goes well. Geoff
This photo was around midday in the height of summer

Hi Geoff,
I'd heard that the smoke had reached New Zealand and even as far as South America.
Even though we're in the middle of a substantial, week long, rain event, there are still 91 fires burning in NSW alone.
Thanks for posting the photo. I'll copy it and send to my mates.
We'll get back on top of things. In 2003, I was in Canberra when fire destroyed 500+ homes in one afternoon. These days, that event is hardly ever mentioned.
Thanks & Cheers,
Rob

[Sundowner]

Hello,
I’ve just closed the “Mogo Old Oilers” Go Fund Me.
I believe that once it is closed, Go Fund Me will refund all donations.
The reason for this is that GFM have made it impossible for our beneficiary, our Associations treasurer, to verify her identity in order to make the withdrawal of funds.
Thank you for thinking of us.
Regards,
Rob

PS; There are a couple of other ways to make a direct donation, should you want to help our cause.
You can see your options here.... https://matama.weebly.com/project-phoenix.html
Thanks & Cheers,
Rob

[Sundowner]

Hello,
Its come to my attention that you may have to apply for your refund from “Go Fund Me”.
This is despite them promising to make the refunds automatically.
If you do need to go down this course then here is a link to the page to do so.
https://support.gofundme.com/hc/en-us/r ... 0000288632
All the best,
Rob