The Yea Heights Estate in Victoria is a development of 25 homes which are being built for families who were affected by the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.
Arup has been involved in this project from the outset, contributing to the planning permit, civil and infrastructure design. More recently however, on Friday 1st February 2013, eight engineers, eight vacation students, three admin staff, one drafter and one HR consultant from Arup volunteered to go to the Yea Township and get their hands dirty assisting in the build.
“Being able to come back and actually help build some of the homes on the site we helped bring to life was a great opportunity to showcase our involvement to Arup staff and to bring our involvement full circle.” Said Alex C. Chen, one of Arup’s volunteers.
Organised by Arup’s community partnering programme and our HR department as part of the summer vacation program, the Arup staff who volunteered donated 50% of their own time to the cause and Arup sponsored the other 50%. It was great to showcase the amazing humanitarian side of Arup culture to the vacationers, who will hopefully want to come back as future graduates/employees.
“It was a great day out of the office and vacationers seemed to really enjoy the work. It would be amazing to incorporate days like this into future graduate programmes at Arup… watch this space.” Said Tom Slack from Arup’s HR department in Melbourne.
The journey begins, as told by Alex C. Chen
It was a particularly early start for some with the bus departing from the Spring St office at 7am. The sky was looking ominous just before we left but it cleared up to be a perfect day, thank goodness. It was a great effort by all to make it to the office on time. After a comfortable ride in the bus with plenty of chatter and catching up on sleep by others, we made it to Yea where we had a quick cuppa during induction before beginning work on our allotted tasks.
After being assigned to one of four teams, we used our engineering brains to figure out exactly how we were going to achieve our tasks. As usual, once we got into the swing of things, it was time for morning tea. How the time goes when you’re having fun.
We had been asked to assist with the fencing on both sides of a house, moving appliances into two of the houses, pouring the concrete base for the water tanks of two homes, and preparing the earth and retaining walls to build steps at the back of two homes. We finished the fencing for one of the homes, pouring the concrete for the water tank slabs, successfully moved appliances into the homes without damage and prepared the way for the pouring of concrete for the stairs. It was great to see some of the ladies really getting into the action with the (power) tools as can be seen in some of the photos.
It was a bit sad once it was time to leave, especially after everyone had gotten into a rhythm. All in all, it was a productive day. The number of comments of how sore people were over the weekend was a good indication of how hard everyone worked.
Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the day despite being a bit sore. Some were keen to go back for more next time. Keep your eyes out for future H4H Build days in the future. We are planning on four more days this year.
Here are some of the testimonials:
“I am glad everyone had a good day on Friday, even if a little sore the day after.
I would like to thank you and the rest of the team for a great days work. A tremendous amount of work was completed and it has made a big impact on the progress of the two houses.
We value the relationship with ARUP and for the on-going support in this very practical way.
Please pass on my thanks to everyone for a job well done and for the very positive impact it has had on our partner families.
I look forward to working with more ARUP teams through the year.
Brian Finch – Business Manager, Habitat for Humanity
“I had a great day and I think the vac students really enjoyed it (was VERY sore over the weekend though). Thanks so much for organising it all.”
Samantha Webb – PA to Peter Bowtell
Also, below is an email from Philip Curtis, who is the Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity Victoria, to update us on the current and upcoming projects:
Good afternoon.
I am sending this email to you as a supporter of our life changing work as we seek to assist low income families into safe, decent and affordable housing solutions. As you know, our major project is the development at Yea where we are planning to build up to 25 safe, decent and affordable houses.
An article that appeared in the Domain Section of The Age last Saturday can be found here. It gives a good overview of the Yea Heights Estate project and some of the outcomes being achieved for our partner families. Please feel free to circulate this to others within your business. Your support is helping us to assist our partner families in a very practical manner.
We plan to have the next 2 houses at yea completed next month which will complete the first 5 houses on this site. Plans are being prepared for the next 5 houses to be built on Lots 9, 10, 15, 16 and 22. We anticipate starting these houses during April.
Thank you for your continued support of this and our other projects. We expect to have building permits for our 2 new projects at Crib Point and Drouin shortly and have these projects underway in coming months. Three houses will be built on each site.
2013 will be a big year for us as we expand our home building program. We will also celebrate 25 years since the first meeting to establish Habitat for Humanity in Victoria. A Celebration and Fundraising Dinner is being planned for Friday 24 May 2013. More details will follow and I invite you to “save the date”. We will need your support to make this night a successful event.
Again, thank you for your support. Please contact me if there are any questions.
Regards,
Philip Curtis
Executive Director
Habitat for Humanity, Victoria
16 Pilgrim Court
Ringwood Vic 3134
Tel: +61 (0)3 9872 3530
email:
Web: www.habitat.org.au/vic
Building Homes, Building Community,
Building Hope
A copy of the last Annual Report can be found here: http://www.habitat.org.au/annualreport
If you want to find out more, please visit www.habitat.org.au/vic
