A truck load of hay and household supplies donated by a doctor and nurses in Victoria is due to arrive in Orange on Friday morning.
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Anaesthetist Dr Peter Brown contacted the Central Western Daily two weeks ago offering hay bales from his farm to drought-hit Orange region farmers if a truck could be found to collect it.
The Orange public group Feed4Farmers jumped into action with a truck and driver offered by the D’Aquino liquor group to take up the doctor’s generous offer.
Driver Jim Hughan arrived at the doctor’s Mornington Peninsula property on Thursday morning to pick up the load.
Dr Brown said a local landscaping company, Alameda Landscapes, provided three workers to load the bales onto the truck.
Also waiting to be loaded were household goods donated by nurses at The Bays Hospital at Mornington.
“We’ve had a huge donation by theatre nursing staff out at The Bays Hospital,” he said.
“They collected $1100 and bought essential items, cereal, milk, dog food, cat food, beer and soft drinks.
“They’ve been outstanding, they raised $1100 in two days.”
The support and the generosity they’ve shown, I was pretty much dumbfounded.
- Darren Barrett, Feed4Farmers
Dr Brown said he had another 50 bales available for collection.
He said he found out about the farmers’ plight after reading a Central Western Daily drought story on his phone.
“I was in theatre and we were talking about the crisis in NSW and southern Queensland.
“I saw a grab from your newspaper and I decided it would be a good thing to donate bales of hay.
“It has been a big effort from a whole lot of people.”
Feed4Farmers committee member Darren Barrett thanked all concerned for their help.
“The support and the generosity they’ve shown, I was pretty much dumbfounded,” he said.
“I was talking to the doctor today. The nurses in theatre, they got wind of the donation Dr Brown was doing.
“They put the tin around, they’ve done that off their own bat.”
He said that once the truck arrived in Orange it would be unloaded and the hay and supplies would be allocated to local farmers most in need.
A family fun day to raise money for local farmers is to be held at Bletchington Public School on Sunday from 10am-3pm.
The Fair Dinkum Farmer Fundraiser hopes to raise $20,000.
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