Faulty bore pump means home burns

A Dampier Peninsula family have been left homeless after a bushfire swept through their property.

At the time of the blaze on September 12, Jaydee and Tanya Dann and their six-year-old son Jason had been without access to water at their Nillygam community home after trying for almost four months to have an inoperable bore pump replaced.

The family were the only residents of the community, about 40km north of Beagle Bay, after moving there in June this year.

They lost their home along with all their possessions and two of their dogs when bushfires burning on the Peninsula reached their property.

The property had a bore and water tank but the pump for drawing water was inoperable.

“We’ve fought fire before, but with water – without water you’re defenceless,” Mr Dann said.

“If we had water we could have saved our place.”

He said they had seen the fires burning for about eight days before they reached Nillygam.

As the fires drew nearer, neighbours helped make firebreaks and backburn to stop the advance.

“We could hear it crackling in the distance so you know that it’s close – we did what we could while we could,” Mr Dann said.

“I was actually going back into the house while it was alight, you don’t know what to do.

“You go in there trying to save something but in the end I couldn’t get anything – we walked out of there with nothing but the clothes we had on and two of our dogs.

“You’re standing there watching your life go up, it’s hard to do but there’s nothing you can do, you’re watching it go up, literally.”

The Danns said they were aware of the water situation before moving to Nillygam and had been carting five 20L drums of water from Beagle Bay every second day.

They had had been trying since about three weeks before they arrived to arrange to have the pump fixed or replaced through the Mamabulanjin Aboriginal Corporation in Broome and the Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

Mamabulanjin chief executive Neil Gower said the corporation had a responsibility to repair and maintain facilities such as bores and pumps in remote communities. However, he said that since the pump at Nillygam needed replacing it was the responsibility of FaHCSIA.

Mr Gower said Mamabulanjin had “pleaded” with FaHCSIA to replace the Danns’ bore pump.

FaHCSIA was contacted for comment but had not responded when the Broome Advertiser went to print.