Port Hedland mother Bernadette Pisani organises 174 boxes of donations for flood victims in Lismore, NSW

A Port Hedland mother on long service leave has decided to use her spare time to support flood victims in the NSW town of Lismore. Tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes as floods ravaged NSW and QLD earlier this month, so local mother Bernadette Pisani decided to do something to help, and began advertising a donation hub at an unused warehouse in Port Hedland. Ms Pisani said after seeing the devastation the floods had caused, she began planning. “Seeing it all over the news, the town was a complete write-off,” she said. Ms Pisani allocated five pallets for donated clothing, food, and other items to be sent to Lismore, which totalled 174 boxes. Within a day and a half, the pallets were full, and Ms Pisani said she had to turn back more than 50 people who wanted to donate. “The community’s generosity has been unbelievable, I have had such good feedback,” she said. “I didn’t think this was going to be as big as what it did get to, which showed the willingness of people to give.” Ms Pisani said she was blown away with not only the quantity, but the quality of goods people donated. “It wasn’t treated as a dumping ground,” she said. “Amazingly, there were so many people living here who had families in the affected areas. “People have been grateful that from all the way over here in the west, we could provide support for them.” After 10 years working at the Pilbara Ports Authority, Ms Pisani used her connections to organise three transport companies who donated one leg each of the more than 6000 km journey — RGR Road Haulage, GKR Transport and M.E.T Grono Transport. Ms Pisani said each leg — valued at about $2000 each — was being done free of charge by the companies, with RGR leaving Port Hedland last Thursday, GKR then taking the freight from Perth to Sydney, and M.E.T Grono expected to arrive at Southern Cross University in Lismore next week. Due to the success of the first run, Ms Pisani is already planning a second journey, this time with a Tautliner that can carry up to 40 pallets.