36
APRIL 2022
comments that just struck a chord and has become a chorus line for the whole recovery effort. That line, delivered after we had established our beachhead but surveying the enormous volume of work in front of us was: How do you eat an Elephant? One bite at a time. Mark M in a later post modified that slightly to one bike at a time. We established our communication line with a Messenger Group on the Club’s facebook site that contains the names of 17 club members who have made contributions to the recovery effort. There were also several of Mark’s friends who are not club members and therefore not on this group. Work teams were established and assigned tasks working on different aspects of the clean-up. The best analogy I can draw here is the well-known and popular war story of ‘The Great Escape’. You may recall in that story the troops were organised into different work groups aligned with their individual expertise. Our group was no different. Our ‘gofers’ were very active, trolling the street and securing tables for the parts-wash lines and a couple of collapsible gazebos for shade shelter. In a later phase we salvaged the plywood ceiling off the office to make new shelves for the steel framed shelving units. Waste not want not as my Granny was often heard to say.
HOW TO EAT AN ELEPHANT Drained, cleaned and air dried. A Master organiser. Les Fitzpatrick: Arrived on site with a truck loaded with essentials. Anyone who has seen Les’s well equipped 1200GSA will understand that this man does not leave anything to chance. If it’s powered by electricity and can be fixed then Les fixed it. Bill Allan and his sidekick Gary Stirling: Bill was just everywhere all of the time and always in good cheer. If the situation needed a smile and a laugh then Bill was there. Gary seemed to control the wash line and these two would make a good Vaudeville Act. Essential members in any happy work group.
To everyone who never shirked from dragging another bike out onto the concourse to be cleaned, to picking up another box of parts or tray of tools for cleaning, to holding onto the pressure washer, broom, wet vac or did the washing – all take a bow; Mal, Toddy, Paul, Howard, Charlie, Mark, Kelly, Michael, Greg, Bob plus Sue & Jane for their offsite baking efforts. If I have missed anyone I humbly apologise. Together with this fine group of club members there were Mark’s friends and members of the Airheads Group: Jonathan, Charlie, Glen, Rod, Jay, Scott, John & Steve. There was another part to this recovery effort that I have witnessed in the previous flood events in 1974 and 2011 and that is the community spirit in Brisbane. People driving past dropped off sandwiches, biscuits, fruit, water and even beer for the workers. Then there are our own Sue Ferguson and Jane Gray who baked muffins and fruit cakes to sustain the troops.
I am reluctant to single out individuals but these guys IMHO deserve that recognition: Mike Stokes: Took charge of the fluid changes on the bikes. This involved draining the engine/gearbox/ final drive, flushing with kerosene by manually turning the engines over, draining and filling with light grade ATF. Mark trusted Mike with the keys to Small milestones have been heralded along the shed and he was always first on site – every day. the way like when the storage compactus unit had A trusted position and very well deserved. been cleaned and sanitised and was able to receive Peter Ferguson: Took charge of the fuel tanks. cleaned parts: a major milestone when Les was
