We had worked with Rural Aid
on a few Farm Rescues during 2018 and were blown away by the experiences we
had.
Farm Rescues aim to send a
team of volunteers onto a farm to help out with whatever the farmers need;
often it’s not farming-related jobs, but things that they just can’t get to
because they don’t have the time and/or money to get to themselves. It’s hopefully helping to improve their
quality of life and give them a foot up with things. Often it’s just letting them know that
somebody does give a damn.
But the Forbes Mega Farm
Rescue was a different animal. When
Charles Alder, the CEO of Rural Aid, mentioned the idea to us round a campfire
one night it seemed incredible. More so,
because he wanted this to happen in only a few short months time. The amount of work to pull it all together
was huge; and yet, on Thursday 11 October 2018, Doug and I pulled into the show
grounds in Forbes to set up our van for what was going to be an epic couple of
weeks.
The week itself kicked off
on Monday, with over 160 volunteers heading out onto 13 local farms to help
with fencing, building projects, machinery repairs, household maintenance - you
name it. But there was a tonne of work
before hand getting ready for the volunteers’ arrival. Over three days we cleaned up and set up a
mini “village” which the volunteers would call home while they were helping
out. And we welcomed them all as they
arrived and made sure they knew what was happening. By Sunday afternoon the place was buzzing
with excitement as we gathered for our first briefing. Teams were announced and packs of safety
equipment and work shirts were distributed and everyone was really keen to get
out there and get going.
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Ground zero - the shed! |
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Load upon load of donated goods ready to be made up into food hampers |
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Hampers ready to be distributed |
The “farmy army” comprised
of volunteers aged between 28 and 75 and came from around the country to
help. Their days began at 6:30am for
breakfast before they headed off to their assigned farms at 8am. From there,
they helped out with jobs on the farm until 4pm or 5pm.
Our team was made up of 13
wonderful people from all over the country and all walks of life. We were ably led by Lee and Rosey (whom we’d
worked with previously on 3 other rescues) and we were a tight-knit bunch. As well as working like a well-oiled machine,
we chose to spend most of our down-time together too, gathering for meals
together and relaxing round our little campfire in the evenings. We were christened “The A Team” (probably by
ourselves, but it stuck) and I’m sure we were the envy of all the other teams
(haha).
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The A Team |
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The team that eats together..... |
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Team leader Brandy (and her owner Rosey) |
We had been allocated to a
lovely farming family who made us very welcome and appreciated the help we gave
them. The farm was outside Forbes and
was owned by I, who farmed sheep and cattle but was struggling with the
terrible drought. The paddocks were
barren and the dams were drying up. I
had help on the farm from his sister H and her husband L. All of them were on the far side of middle
age (don’t tell H I said that!!) and although spritely, there were some jobs
that weren’t as easy any more. And older
sister S, who is 75, came down from Parkes to spend the week and prepare us the
most wonderful morning teas every day.
So you see, we had it very good.
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Doug loved the morning teas |
The team had lots to keep us
busy over the week. We lifted the old
wool shed floor, which was very worn and dangerous, and laid a new one. We helped erect new walls in the wool shed.
We fixed the fences in the sheep yards outside the shed so they were safe and
stable. We painted the entire outside of
I’s house and we helped put up over a kilometre of new fencing. Oh, and Doug did a bit of tree work too. It was a busy week; but so rewarding. To see the change in our farmer over the time
we spent with him was heart warming; going from a quiet, reticent man to
someone keen to share his knowledge and love of his area and his farm.
Life in the “village” was
great too. There were about 90 or so set
ups in the campground; everything from modest two-man tents to a huge motorhome
built from a semi-trailer and everything in between. We got to know so many lovely people and
everyone was there with the same mindset.
There was a huge shed which we used as a dining hall/meeting
hall/entertainment hall - everything took place there. There was a movie night, a Hawaiian-themed
dinner and a “Thank You” dinner for all the farmers and their families. On another evening, the teams were encouraged
to head out and sample the delights of the eating houses in Forbes; an
initiative to help inject some much-needed funds into the local community. Our team descended on the local Thai
restaurant and were treated to a wonderful banquet.
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Dinner at the Thai restaurant |
The Mega Rescue, due to its
size and the scope of what we were doing, created a lot of interest from the
local community and from further afield.
We were featured in local papers and on news bulletins and one of the
major sponsors, Nova radio’s Fitzy and Wippa, came and did their morning
broadcast from the dining hall. There
was going to be a live cross to Sunrise one morning too, but we were bumped by
Harry and Meghan!
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Fitzy and Wippa's broadcast |
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Lunches made for us by the local high school students |
All too quickly, the week
flew by and Saturday saw most of the volunteers pack up and start travelling
home. After a big tidy-up and helping
pack all the gear back in the truck, there was only Rosey and Lee and us left
by the end of the day. The four of us
had offered to stay on for a few days as there were a couple of things still to
finish off at the farm. It was a very
different place when the “circus” had moved on.
We had a quiet day on Saturday and on Sunday afternoon, we packed up the
vans and moved out to the farm, where we spent some peaceful time with the
family, finishing off the painting and the wool shed.
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Nice and straight now |
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A load of donated orange pulp for cattle feed |
As I said earlier, this
rescue had been very different from those we had been part of earlier in the
year. The earlier ones were just one
team and one farm and we stayed on the farm, worked on the farm and prepared
our meals and ate on the farm. The
experience in those cases was more intimate and personal. But the mega rescue was big and bold and fun,
and the end result was the same - we were able to form bonds with amazing
people, to help someone out and give something back.
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