WHAT was shaping up to be a very quiet end to the week quickly changed on Friday, August 16, with the gum tree behind Gawler Arcade dropping one of its branches.
First and foremost, it is incredibly lucky no one was hurt considering what a thoroughfare that part of the Woolworths car park is.
It also certainly woke up the staff here at The Bunyip, given the branch fell less than 30 metres from our office’s back door.
In fact, two of The Bunyip’s vehicles were lucky to escape damage, being parked at the end of the driveway and under the tree’s canopy.
While details of the incident are outlined on the second page of this week’s edition, we have to give props to a number of community members.
The staff from Big W acted very quickly to help clear the area and put up bollards to fence off the tree while emergency services arrived.
Members of both Gawler’s police and fire services arrived on scene very quickly to take control of the situation.
It goes to show how smoothly things work when the community works together.
We probably also need to recognise whoever designed and put together the verandah behind Gawler Arcade.
To say that thing held up like a champion is an understatement.
The whole situation could have been a lot worse if it had not managed to stay standing despite catching a branch that was realistically as big as a small tree.
While a fallen branch with no injuries can be considered a minor incident in the grand scheme of things, it was a good indication of how Gawler can handle emergencies.
So again, credit where it is due to those who handled a developing situation with aplomb.
