1: Rachel De Norville, 17, surveys her sisters’ destroyed bedroom.
By Casey Neill
A 30-metre gum tree has torn a Monbulk family’s life apart.
Ashley De Norville, 11, was lucky to be alive after a tree crashed through the roof of her bedroom and landed on her as she slept on 2 August.
“I couldn’t really see anything, just bits of wood and insulation,” she told the Mail.
She shared the room with her sister Jessie, 14, who woke to a loud crash about 2am as the tree came down on top of her.
“I was terrified,” Jessie said.
“You couldn’t really see anything except all the wood on the floor and stuff.”
Their mother, Sally, woke to their screams.
“We couldn’t see much, but we could see there was something on top of Ashley’s head and we had to get her out of the bed as quickly as we could,” she said.
“I was pulling the roof tiles off her and calling her name. I just wanted to hear her speak.”
“Her head was where most of the stuff fell. It was absolutely terrifying, the scariest moment of my life.
“When we heard her voice and saw her little head come through, it was a great relief.”
The girls suffered only scratches and bruises, but are still coping with the shock of the incident and losing their home of nine years.
“Basically, the tree has written off our house. It has to be demolished,” Mrs De Norville said.
“We’re very dislocated at the moment and don’t really have anywhere to live.”
The family of five is staying in a hotel room while they wait for help from their insurance company.
“You can’t put your whole house in a hotel room. There’s so much we’ve had to leave behind,” Mrs De Norville said.
“It’d be nice to find out where we can go, what we can do, before the rain wrecks it and the possums move in.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to get in the house and retrieve a few more things like photo albums.”
Mrs De Norville said an arborist believed water erosion through its root system caused the gum to fall.
“He also said those trees were notorious for drinking lots of water when it rains and then getting top-heavy and falling over.”
The tree was in the middle of their neighbour’s yard.
“It wasn’t a tree we thought would threaten our house,” she said.
“It just fell across the angle. It didn’t go downhill like gravity would rule. It was totally out of the blue.
“It’s all the possessions and memories you leave behind that you can’t replace, and that’s hard.
“But we’ve got the kids, so who cares?”
