Motorists stopped and waited as a forklift lifted the huge bales one by one from the truck to a shed for storage.

Normally you would get a couple of impatient people beeping a horn – but people know this is the worst drought to hit the region in more than 30 years.

Instead, the arrival of the truck load of hay, delivered by driver Jimmy Hughan after a 34-hour trek to Victoria, brought a cheer to locals.

The hay was donated by Victorian doctor Peter Brown.

Mr Hughan said the engine-unit of the truck was donated for the trip by D’Aquino’s while the trailer was donated by Kelvin White.

“I’ve never carted hay before, it’s a first,” he said.

Mr Hughan said he didn’t have a tarpaulin for the load which included boxes of food and supplies donated by nurses from a Mornington Peninsula hospital after they heard about Dr Brown’s donation.

“I was just praying it didn’t rain on the way here,” he said.

“There’s chook food, there’s dog food, feed, bran, toilet paper, biscuits, some of the boxes I don’t know what’s in them.”

Mr Hughan said the ground conditions in southern Victoria were totally different to the dry, drought-ravaged pastures of the Central West.

“There’s hay everywhere down there,” he said.

“They had about 700 mills [millimetres of rain] down there.

“There’s a lot of trucks coming up from Melbourne with hay, B-doubles.”

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Feed4Farmers public group committee member Darren Barrett, who helped organise the hay run, said they would consider organising another trip to pick up a further 50 bales from Dr Brown’s farm which had been offered to the group.

However, he said it depended on having a truck.

“We’ve been really, really lucky,” he said.

“It really is a big commitment for them [D’Aquinos] to do that.”

He said the hay would be stored until the group assessed where it should go.

“As a group we are going to have to start going through the register of people in need so we can work out the worst-affected,” he said.