Goya Dmytryshchak
An SES volunteer has walked along every street in Hobsons Bay for his own enjoyment and to raise awareness of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Robert Olifiers has spent the past six and a half years walking every street in 14 Melbourne councils, completing about 7900 kilometres and 57,000 streets.
He said after his marriage ended about seven years ago, he had struggled with depression.
“I thought, I’ve got to fight my way out of this, so I wrote a list of things I needed to achieve in the short and long term and one of them was wellbeing in my mind and body,“ he said.
So, he started walking for about an hour in his local area and marking off the territory he had covered in a Melway.
“I see and take photos of some amazing sights, flora and fauna, meet lovely people, walk through some beautiful areas and ask and answer so many questions about the community,“ Mr Olifiers said.
“As I walk, I look forward, backward, up and down – just like I am in a search for a missing person or a crime scene.
“Each council area is like a jigsaw puzzle, which I try to put together and get great satisfaction out of completing.
“Each house, in the way it is presented, tells a story about the owner/occupier from the garden, fence or even letter box.“
After covering his own municipality, Mr Olifiers began to explore other areas.
He maps out a route the night before and drives to his chosen location before walking up to 12 kilometres at a time, covering streets, courts, lanes and paths.
On Monday, he completed the final five kilometres of Hobsons Bay and dropped in to the SES unit to talk about PTSD.
“I’m doing it for my own wellbeing but I’m also doing it to pass on key messages that people do get lonely and depressed and suffer from grief in different ways, and just a few little strategies how they can try and climb their way out of it and get themselves over that hump,“ Mr Olifiers said.
“I’m also writing an educational book about communities – what entails a community.
“I feel that by the time I’ve finished all these councils of Melbourne, I think I’m pretty well informed about what a community entails and what it’s made up of and who’s in a community and what are some of the quirky things that I’ve seen and experienced and people I’ve met.“
Mr Olifiers wears his SES community education clothing while walking to invite conversation about PTSD.
“Any emergency service who sees some shocking things – and we’re no different to the police or fireys or ambos – could suffer some PTSD,“ he said.
“In the SES where I volunteer, which is at Whitehorse SES, I’m also what’s called a peer – I offer peer support, which is a bit like first aid for counselling with regard to our SES members around Victoria.
“It’s just to try and alleviate any ongoing issues because we don’t want to lose our good members.
“I’m not acting as a peer when I talk to people, I’m acting as an SES member and just passing on the good word of SES but I’m also passing on a few key messages.
“We need to look after ourselves and if we ever do find ourselves in grief or on our own, struggling, where we don’t want to leave our house … we need to find something that we can celebrate with our friends, something that we enjoy doing, something that will help us with the wellbeing of our mind and body, and give it a go.“
