As many businesses look to pivot in the eye of COVID-19, we
are no different except, we’re continuing to deliver behind the scenes –
trucking fodder and water to farmers and, bushfire affected areas.
Drought, fires, floods and now the impact of COVID-19
restrictions has meant farmers and rural communities are experiencing a cascade
of unforeseen events over the past six months and, unfortunately for some – a mix
of all.
Between January and March this year, Rural Aid delivered
more than $8 million in support to our Aussie farmers and their communities
through hay, domestic drinking water, counselling and financial assistance –
including pre-paid Visa cards and the Gift of Music program.
Rural Aid CEO, John Warlters said that there was a greater
need for services than ever before. Through digital and workforce enablement
initiatives our team has found unique ways to stay connected with rural
communities. Our counsellors are in regular phone contact and we’re also
conducting online webinars including our Community Builders Webinars Series.
“While it has been fantastic to see the onset of rain in
many areas, the drought is not over – far from it,” John said. “In the past six
weeks, we’ve delivered 6894 bales of hay to 459 farmers in 95 locations,
trucked 936,000 litres of domestic drinking water; as well as providing over
$1.2 million dollars in financial assistance that includes Visa gift cards to
almost 1500 farmers. Of course, our counsellors continue to support farmers and
their families too, conducting 124 counselling sessions and reaching out to 597
farmers by phone.
“Our volunteers are currently sitting tight and we hope that
they will be back on the road helping our farmers and rural communities over
the coming months.
“Transport continues to be an essential service during these
current restrictions and by leveraging Rural Aid’s proven delivery model, we have
been able to ensure farmers can continue to feed their livestock and receive
domestic drinking water.
“Two of our counsellors, Gary Bentley and Zoe Cox also have
regular media participation, with Gary’s weekly column reaching 8 million
readers across Australia. To further support farmers and their families, Rural
Aid counsellors conducted the first On the Couch webinar on 13 May and the next
being held on 11 June.
“Organisational planning around COVID-19 has been undertaken
to support Rural Aid’s direction as a matter of course to ensure the charity
continues to meet the needs of primary producers and regional communities.
“We’re operating in the background to deliver for our
farmers, many who haven’t had a level of support as they start to rebuild post
the summer bushfires.”
Livestock
and Agricultural Fire Loss NSW and Victoria
Livestock loss across New South Wales, as a result of the
fires, exceeded 13,000 with over 16,000 landholders estimated to have been
impacted by the fires. Southern New South Wales had the greatest losses with
more than 12,000 head of livestock dying as a result of the fires¹. As of 28
January 2020, the fires in NSW had burnt 5.3 million hectares or 6.7% of the
State².
In Victoria’s North East and East Gippsland areas, livestock
and agricultural loss for the fires late December and early January were
significant. Over 7000 livestock – including cattle, sheep and beehives – were
lost. Over 53,000 hectares of pasture, field crops and softwood plantations
were destroyed by fire. There was also significant fencing and farm
infrastructure damage, such as fodder reserves, machinery and hay sheds³.
As at 1 May 2020 in Queensland, over 67% of the land area of
Queensland was drought declared⁴.
Bureau of Meteorology
The Bureau of Meteorology noted in the Events section of
its Annual Climate
Statement 2019, published on 9 January 2020, that, ‘The
extensive and long-lived fires appear to be the largest in scale in the modern
record in New South Wales, while the total area burnt appears to be the largest
in a single recorded fire season for eastern Australia’⁵.
- Warmest
year on record for Australia – mean temperature 1.52 °C above average
- Warmest
year on record for New South Wales and Western Australia
- Annual
total rainfall 40% below average with much of Australia affected by drought
¹Sourced from NSW Department of Primary Industries
²Sourced from Parliament of Australia Parliamentary Library
³Sourced from Agriculture
Victoria
⁴Sourced from Queensland
Government’s Longpaddock Drought Declarations
⁵Sourced from Bureau of Meteorology (BOM)
Marriage and a new baby – a note of thanks from a farming family
We write to express our sincere thanks for the assistance
offered from Rural Aid.
An exhaustive 2019 saw the drought climax with the worst
bushfires we’ve seen on our property. In November, we were forced to evacuate
our property due to immediate bushfire threat. When we returned home, we were
lucky, we had a home but still spent the following days fighting fires. This
firefighting exhausted our water supply, with local emergency services using
our last stock watering hole to save our local community.
Despite the effect of drought and fire we remained
resilient, we even got married on the weekend after the fires hit.
The Rural Aid Christmas parcel and financial bill relief
meant so much to us. With our livestock suffering depression with no feed and
little water, this token reminded us we weren’t alone.
With 2020 bringing a change we were excited to see the
rain begin. This too brought challenges as the rain caused local floods and
further property damage with erosion. During this time, we were isolated on the
farm due to flooding. This was a nervous time as we were expecting the birth of
our first child anyday! In February we welcomed our daughter, Ember on the day
the creek subsided to allow us access to town. The Rural Aid visa card was
another unexpected surprise that was invaluable for our young family.
With COVID outbreak our resilience was once again tested
but the acts of support and kindness like that that Rural Aid provide will
continue to see us succeed. So, we apologise for the delay in passing on our
gratitude, as you can read, we were a little distracted!
About Rural Aid
Rural
Aid is one of Australia’s largest rural charities. Well known for the highly
successful ‘Buy a Bale’ campaign, the charity also provides financial
assistance, water and counselling to farmers in times of drought, flood or
fire. Other initiatives support its vision that farming and rural communities
are safeguarded to ensure their sustainability both during and after these
natural disasters. Visit www.ruralaid.org.au for
further information on these programs and other support for our rural
communities.
Visit www.ruralaid.org.au/snapshots for Rural
Aid’s latest assistance statistics.
Register at www.ruralaid.org.au/towns/webinars/
to be part of the Community Builders Webinars Series and to access past
episodes.
Media: 0447 116
757 | media@admin.media.ruralaid.org.au
Spokesperson: Rural Aid
CEO John Warlters | 0409 618 641
Follow
Rural Aid for updates on:
Buy
A Bale – FB: @buyabaleofhay |
IG: @buyabale |
TW: @buyabale
