Instinct gets Matt involved in cleanup
FOR 29-year-old Teneriffe resident Matt Lancashire, motivation to help his community in the aftermath of the Brisbane River flood in January was instinctive.
“It was surreal. You would see all these affected people whereas you venture outside of your own neighbourhood and it was like a bomb had gone off. It was really sad to see,” Matt said. “People got really affected by it and I just think it was one of those things where I think people needed help,” he said.
The weekend following the flood peak saw Matt and his Ray White New Farm associates set up a task force to clean up Welsby and Sydney streets at Ne Farm - two severely affected areas.
“We called council to get trucks organised, basically got all of our mates who were tradespeople and got them organised,” Matt said. “First, we started off with 40 people, then, by the end of the day, there were over 200 people helping out.”
Matt said the biggest thing was seeing every resident -from Brisbane’s wealthiest to the less fortunate - working for the same cause with an unfettered willingness to help one another.
“My principal, Haesley Cush, bought a whole heap of Coles Myer voucher cards and there was a resident who slept through her house while it was totally flooded and Haesley gave her two $500 gift cards,” Matt said, “Just for that small little thing it made such a difference to that person.”
Matt recalled the generosity of local businesses, such as the New Farm IGA which allowed a woman to supply volunteers with $1000 worth of groceries free of charge or James Street Markets which donated sausages for a barbeque.
The generosity didn’t stop there. After the clean up of New Farm was complete, Matt and another colleague spent a day helping his parents in Tennyson who were affected, as well as residents in West End.
It wasn’t the three days’ worth of cleaning that Matt remembers, it’s seeing the community unite that struck a chord.
“I think it’s one of those things that, after seeing what happened in New Farm, it’s just a really good feeling to see the community come together,” Matt said. “It didn’t matter who you were or where you were from but in this busy place, New Farm became connected.”
Matt not only has a sense of civic pride but his strong work ethic has recently won him the sixth ranking in Queensland out of 1200 Ray White real estate agents for the last quarter.
“The awards came unexpected because the calibre of agents I was up against were the ones I used to look at when I was starting out and thought if I was half as good as those guys I’d be happy,” Matt said. “This year to be up there with them and even ranked higher than some is a great accomplishment in itself.”
Now setting his sights on the number one position, Matt attributes his success to having specialised knowledge of the local market place and having an honest approach.
“I love property and definitely am passionate about real estate. At the start (4½ years ago) in a market place that’s so tough I didn’t think I would last,” Matt said, “It was just about building relationships and doing the right thing by people and that’s why I’ve done so well.”
Caption: Matt Lancashire from Ray White New Farm hard at work during the clean up
