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Northampton cyclone song is tribute to the town’s community spirit

Headshot of Geoff Vivian
Geoff VivianGeraldton Guardian
Northampton musician David Stinson recording a song about Cycone Seroja.
Camera IconNorthampton musician David Stinson recording a song about Cycone Seroja. Credit: The Geraldton Guardian, Geoff Vivian The Geraldton Guardian

When they saw cyclone Seroja lift their patio roof off, Northampton couple David and Heidi Stinson decided to leave.

“We ran to the car and high-tailed it out of there,” Mr Stinson said.

Luckily they were able to make it to sturdy stone miners’ cottages they ran as a bed and breakfast, where they sheltered for the night.

Meanwhile, the main roof had lifted from their new home, which they had just finished renovating.

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They are both retired music teachers, and in the following days Mr Stinson wrote a song about their experiences and as a tribute to the Northampton community.

“We had daily meetings,” he said.

“They started off being behind the Middle Pub, where about 100 people would turn up.

“I played my brand new song in the garden behind and the Middle Pub gave free food and drinks. SES said it was the best community spirit they had seen — there were a lot of participants.”

Northampton couple David Stinson and Heidi Sommer-Stinson in the roofless kitchen of their cyclone-damaged home.
Camera IconNorthampton couple David Stinson and Heidi Sommer-Stinson in the roofless kitchen of their cyclone-damaged home. Credit: Supplied

Mr Stinson, aka UJ Oompapa, has since recorded the song, No Clone Like a Cyclone, and posted it on YouTube.

“We build our town up, they blow our town down, we build our town up again,” he sings.

The Stinsons are faced with a $50,000 renovation bill.

The couple had bought the building, previously the town’s CWA Hall, and also bought a camper van early last year.

“The idea was to use it as a place to park the motor home,” Mr Stinson said.

“We bought the motor home in February last year and settled on the CWA in March, all before COVID.”

As their bed and breakfast had a record number of bookings for April 2020, they had planned to sell it in May and go travelling.

They lost all their bookings when COVID-19 hit, and instead they spent the rest of the year in Northampton, slowly renovating their new home.

Now they are trying to crowdfund the renovations to their cyclone-damaged home with a GoFundMe campaign called “Please help Heidi and David rebuild their home”.

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