Category: News

Rural Aid helping Forbes on its road to recovery.

Posted on by Accounts Department

While the news headlines may have moved on, for the residents of Forbes, New South Wales, the catastrophic events of the November 2022 floods are still very fresh in mind.

The scale of the devastation was, and remains, incomprehensible.
As thousands of residents scrambled to evacuate, they watched helplessly as their homes, animals and livelihoods washed away, with no time to prepare as the wall of water bore down.

Like many of his neighbours, Scott Darcy’s fodder harvests were decimated, and his 1800 sheep faced starvation in the subsequent days and weeks. His property was cut off for seven weeks straight, and by the time he could drive out, his truck’s registration had lapsed, rendering his much-needed mode of transport unusable.

For Scott, Rural Aid’s delivery of 480 tonnes of hay on December 15 was a welcomed relief.

“The sheep behind us, we just fed them with donation hay from Rural Aid, who have been fantastic. The generosity of the Australian public has been fantastic. It’s good to know the Australian spirit is out there to help farmers in need,” Scott said.

But the support did not stop there. Committed to standing with their mates in the bush for as long as they’re needed, Rural Aid returned on March 12 with 24 volunteers to assist with recovery efforts in neighbouring Eugowra—and there are further fodder and lick block drops yet to come.

“We’re a tough bunch, we’ll modify and make things work going forward. You’ve always got your neighbours to call on. I’m pretty lucky where we are, we have some good neighbours, a really neat group of people that live in this area,” Scott said.

Rural Aid continues to support the residents of Forbes and the surrounding towns with fodder, counselling, and financial support as they walk this long road to recovery together.

Please consider showing your support to rural Australians experiencing the daunting task of rebuilding their homes and livelihoods.

Click here to Buy a Bale

When The River Runs Dry

Posted on by goodonyaadmin

It’s perhaps Australia’s most recognised identity. A sunburnt country, a land of drought and flooding rains. An historic legacy of extreme weather events so ingrained in our heritage it’s been immortalised in writing, music, and film.

Though as a nation we are no stranger to dry and wet seasons, cycles past have generally presented consecutively—years of drought followed by seasons of heavy rain, and so on. But 2022 paints a very different picture.

While Australia’s eastern coast and farmland has spent much of the year either under floodwater or living in the aftermath, other parts of the country—the far north and south—have recorded some of the driest months on record. And for many of those situated in the dry zones, the 2017-19 drought never really ended.

Water means life, and nowhere is that more evident than in the bush. Just as dry earth is inherently Australian, drought relief is inherent to Rural Aid’s DNA.

It was during a dry day in 2015, that Rural Aid founders, Tracy and Charles Alder launched their highly successful ‘Buy a Bale’ campaign to help struggling farmers feed their starving livestock following years of devastation through the millennium drought. From that galvanising moment, Rural Aid was born, and its drought relief services have since delivered water and fodder relief to some of the most remote corners of the country.

Northern Tablelands farmer, Bronwyn Sargeant, has resided in Gravesend—a dry zone—since childhood, existing through drought was a constant theme. But even that didn’t prepare her for the three years of relentless hardship she faced during Australia’s most recent drought cycle.

Having to sell off livestock month by month to make ends meet, then struggle to feed the remaining animals and care for her family pushed Bronwyn to breaking point. She reached out to Rural Aid, and became the 100th recipient of a new, full water tank via Rural Aid’s drought relief partnership with Finish.

“I would like to say a huge thank you to Rural Aid and Finish for providing the tank. It’s been a great drought strategy that will help us through the next one. And there will be a next one,” said Ms Sargeant.

“Supporting Australia with a more effective and sustainable drought strategy is one of our key objectives as an organisation, and specifically with our partnership with Finish. We are proud to have delivered more than 100 full water tanks to properties situated in dry zones—and we’ve no plans to stop there!” said John Warlters of Rural Aid.

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“We lost a lot of crop. Just devastation.”

Posted on by goodonyaadmin
Whether you believe it to be human induced or the product of Australia’s natural variability, there’s no denying extreme weather events have become more commonplace in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the past five years alone, Australia has been battered by what has been a seemingly unprecedented series of devasting natural disasters, when one of the nation’s worst droughts on record was swiftly followed by aggressive, widespread bushfires, a pandemic, 2021’s mouse plague, and repeated environmentally and economically decimating flood events throughout 2021 and 2022.

Widely attributed to the La Niña weather phenomenon, the deluge is expected to surge on into 2023, bringing with it more damage to add to the already astronomical reconstruction bill sitting precariously around the $2 billion mark.

For Australian farmers, whose lives and livelihoods are so inextricably linked to clement seasons, this dire forecast adds immeasurable anxiety to the many years of mental anguish rural families have experienced. Crops and livestock have been wiped out, materials and machinery written off, property and infrastructure washed away—and finally the long and costly recovery effort must, more often than not, be mounted in isolation without the steady cash flow a good season affords.

It was in such a moment that Mooball fruit grower, Peter Brils, contacted Rural Aid, hoping to secure financial support. Having lost many of his organic fruit trees in the floods of early 2022, Mr Brils was eager to take the first steps towards recovery… but he needed a hand.

“The rain impacted our harvest intensely—we lost a lost a lot of crop, and there was just devastation,” Mr Brils said. “Financial help from Rural Aid allowed me to get things done. I don’t have bobcats, I don’t have machinery. In my case, I need machinery and that costs money,” Mr Brils said.

With the help of Rural Aid’s financial assistance, Mr Brils was able to work to redirect the water flow across his property, hopefully safeguarding his orchard against the future flooding events forecasted.
“Cases like Mr Brils are by no means isolated. There are many farmers currently registered with Rural Aid that are facing devastated crops or lost animals, or in some cases completely wiped-out properties.”

“If we can boost their recovery efforts and help flood-proof them for the future, that means they are better equipped, and closer to realising a good harvest.,” said John Warlters, CEO of Rural Aid.

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