When severe flooding struck North Queensland in February 2025, Queensland Country Bank's Susan Triffitt demonstrated our commitment to community service by orchestrating vital relief efforts through the Crystal Creek Community Hall.
On February 2, following days of torrential rain, multiple communities found themselves completely isolated when the Ollera Creek Bridge collapsed, six major landslides blocked Mount Spec Road, and Cattle Creek flooded the highway.
"The communities of Helen's Hill, Yaruga, Bambaroo, Coolbie, Mutarnee, and Ollera suddenly became one large island," Susan explains. "With no phone reception and no electricity for 10 days, residents were facing increasingly difficult conditions."
Susans actions were quickly rallied around by the community, with 20 volunteers banding together to open the Crystal Creek Community Hall as an emergency relief centre.
Through the power of community connections, they borrowed a 6kVA generator from Black River resident Carlo Phelan, which was then transported across the temporary army bridge to the hall to power essential services.
This resourceful solution allowed the hall to provide lighting, fans, water pumps for toilets, and crucially, charging stations for residents who had depleted their car batteries trying to keep devices charged during the outage.
The Rollingstone district association arrived and created a free food table for the community, but the supplies were quickly depleted on that day. Inspired by their operation, the volunteers put a call out for donations and provided essential supplies to over 300 households. When a local farming business ‘My Fruitshop’ were unable to get their produce to the markets in Townsville they donated tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables by tractor for the volunteers to hand out to locals.
Residents from Ingham who had lost everything and been stuck in their homes for 7 days made the 30-minute drive to the community hall for essentials, after supermarkets shelves had been replenished and quickly stripped bare again. The volunteers established shower facilities and collected clothing donations for affected residents.
Their impact extended even further when, after meeting local needs, the team packaged remaining supplies and forwarded them to communities beyond Ingham that remained isolated, including Bemerside, Halifax, Cordelia, and Macknade.
This experience has inspired Susan and the team of volunteers to lead a community initiative to upgrade the Crystal Creek Community Hall with improved emergency capabilities, including a permanent generator and air conditioning system. The community has already raised $6,380 through crowdfunding efforts.
"Our goal is to organise much-needed repairs for the hall to ensure it serves future generations. We currently hold community BBQs and have plans to bring back social cricket days which were a regular occurrence at the Hall when I was a child. We have limited Hall hire bookings in summer due to no air conditioning so that is also a project we have in mind.”
"Highway closures due to accidents or flooding are not uncommon here, and having this resource could make a significant difference in future emergencies.The recognition received since the disaster has been incredible and overwhelming, but I can’t stress enough how none of it would have been possible without the volunteers who stepped up to help and the people who sent donations. We have a great community with caring people."
At Queensland Country Bank, we take pride in our team members who embody our values of community support and service. Susan's leadership during this crisis reflects our ongoing commitment to the communities we serve across Queensland.