Volunteer truckers have delivered $100,000 worth of donated stock feed to Forbes.
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Three B-doubles loaded with hay, stock feed pellets and dog food were delivered to Forbes on Monday afternoon, and distributed to about a dozen local farmers through the Lions Need for Feed program.
Mates Glen Kendall (known to many as Yogi from Outback Truckers) from Kendall Transport and Peter Wright from Peter Wright Transport had seen how widespread the drought conditions were in the eastern states.
They decided to purchase a truckload of feed pellets and bring them over, then thought they’d also put the call out for any donations of feed while they were at it.
Within a couple of weeks, they had 138 tonnes worth of feed donated, and a group of trucks to deliver it.
They had made deliveries to the Eyre Peninsula, Hay and then Forbes. They were going on to Gunnedah, with a drop-off at Tomingley too.
Left WA seven days earlier with eight trucks – two of those road trains – each donating one to two weeks of their time and up to $6000 worth of fuel to the cause.
They delivered one load to the top of Ayre Peninsula, dropped a load at Hay, three loads at Forbes, some more going to Tomingley and then on to Gunnedah.
Yogi described the epic effort in logistics as “just a couple of mates trying to make a little bit of difference.”
The Advocate spoke to one of the couples collecting some feed, who described the situation on their farm as “pretty bleak”.
They’ve struggled to source stock feed and welcomed the gift from across the country, collecting hay that will feed their cows for a couple of days and pellets that will sustain their calves for about a week.
“We’re quite prepared to provide for ourselves, but things like this in the interim just help prop everything up,” they said.
It’s a boost to morale to know that people care.
“You sort of feel like you’re left in the wilderness,” they added.
Sourcing the feed is proving more and more difficult: it took two weeks of back-to-back phone calls to secure their most recent “shopping list” of requirements.
The convoy was accompanied by CWA representatives, who came bearing $2500 in Visa cards from the Sir James Mitchell welfare fund to be distributed here.
They came bearing cakes from the Badjebup Rockwell branch, and letters from the Nyabing primary school for local primary school children.
To apply for assistance go online to needforfeed.org; buyabale.com.au or www.cwaofnsw.org.au/droughtaid