At dawn on Friday, 20 trucks loaded with hay will leave the tiny southern NSW village of Burrumbuttock bound for drought-ravaged Bourke. It's not about saving farms, but saving lives, the organisers say.
''The trucks are heading off to try and stop some blokes killing themselves,'' farmer Brendan Farrell said.
''Someone's got to do something because at the moment the suicide rate is so bad up through NSW and Queensland.''
Mr Farrell, a wheat and sheep farmer, said farmers from all over the country had dropped off feed in Burrumbuttock over the past two months but even with 20 trucks delivering hay to 91 farmers, it would only buy them a month or so.
''We can't all sit around and worry about ourselves, we need to let these people know we care,'' he said. ''Farmers are just walking off the land, they are just packing up their houses and leaving or killing themselves.''
The fuel bill alone for the convoy will be about $50,000 and although some money has been collected through donation tins at local schools, many of the truck drivers will have to pick up the petrol bills.
Caron Chester, the western regional services manager with NSW Farmers, said Bourke, Brewarrina and Walgett had been particularly devastated by the drought.
''They are suffering the greatest, it's been nearly two years since they had a decent rainfall,'' Ms Chester said.
Farmers were working 100 hours a week just to keep their farms functioning.
''You think in a drought they would have less work to do but it's completely the opposite,'' Ms Chester said.
One of the most useful donations people could give was IGA gift cards to help families buy groceries.
Many people had been generous with donations, including one family who offered their beachside Coffs Harbour house for a week to a Bourke family to give them some time off the land.
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Good to see aussie mateship still exists.
Funny how this event didn't make the news. I came across the reference on Facebook and had to google.
