Facebook post – Georgie Gardam, 26 February 2022
Okay here are the facts, as the council has put out their fact sheet now I’m going to put out mine , so please share.
My understanding so far of the public community fund after contacting the council, state government and hillcrest recovery team that all funds raised after the gofundme was handed over will not go to the families directly affected. This will go to hillcrest community and local community which is not us families, this includes the football match in honour of our children.
The gofundme will come to us families eventually we hope.
The council decided to take over the gofundme fund, cut it off and then make a new fund that does not come to us families without contacting any of us families.
The community were hoodwinked into thinking the money raised in the mystate account would come to us.
This is fraud.
I have continually contacted the council and recovery team with the black and white question of where the funds that have been raised over my sons and other deaths and injuries would go… we get the run around.
We have not been contacted or even been given a condolence from the Devonport City Council or mayor. Although the mayor has had plenty of time to go on sunrise and do local interviews.
As far as we are aware any monies raised from the football match will not come to anyone directly affected.
Have we been informed of the legal issue ? No we haven’t.
Is it to do with centrelink & tax? No.
I and many others were not informed their child had been injured or died on the 16th of December by hillcrest primary school, no roll call was done, no one knew where Zane was and if i didn’t turn up at the school to search myself I highly doubt i would of found out he had died on school grounds earlier that morning until later that day .
Almost all parents were told our children were not involved and all parents had been notified that their children were involved. This was a lie.
Have we received a formal apology for this ? No.
I didn’t see my son for 3 days after the incident.
Was that day handled correctly by the education department ? No absolutely not.
It’s time the public know the truth behind all of this, the council have not offered any support whatsoever nor any contact until I confronted them myself and as a grieving mother I believe I should of never of had to do this..
The multitude of stress this has had on me has actually brought me to some extremely dark places where I myself have almost made the choice to end my own life and I know my fellow families involved feel the same, we will never see our babies again our hearts are eternally broken, we all understand this greatly affected the community but over time they will heal and us families will still be broken, every birthday, every Christmas, every family event for the rest of our living lives will forever be tainted with a shadow of grief and longing for our children. We never will be whole again, our lives are ruined.
I never saw my beautiful boy go to high school along with other parents and I will never see him become a teenager, we are suffering.
This isn’t about money, this is about the state having a moral compass as we feel the community would of never donated so kindly if they knew the funds weren’t coming to those directly affected. We honestly feel used by Devonport City Council and I for one will not let them walk all over us families when we are hurting, from all Devonport City Councils actions so far we see they truly do not care about us and actions speak louder than words. All we have asked for from the start is clear communication.
You cannot and will not use my son’s death as a pay day for the local community when we are the ones suffering.
My son Zane was all for doing things the correct way with kindness and you Devonport City Council are not, this is arbitrary.
Do the right thing, please.
