St Vincent de Paul Society NSW to launch drought appeal
VINNIES will today launch a drought appeal to mobilise its army of rural volunteers to visit desperate farmers with groceries, livestock feed and cash to pay off overdue bills.
NSW
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LEADING charity Vinnies and The Sunday Telegraph will today launch a drought appeal mobilising an army of volunteers to visit desperate farmers with groceries, livestock feed and cash to pay the bills.
Vinnies has responded to The Sunday Telegraph’s series of stories laying bare the truth of the drought devastating much of NSW — the paddocks strewn with dead animals, the families stripped of savings and hope, and the shame of failure driving sun-hardened men towards suicide.
“With drastically low rainfall this winter, farms and funds are literally drying up,” St Vincent de Paul Society NSW chief executive Jack de Groot said.
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“This situation is quickly becoming a crisis. The Vinnies NSW Drought Appeal will help us boost our ability to keep doing what we’ve always done — provide support to people doing it tough through our amazing network of volunteer members living in these same communities.”
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Farmers are proud people who don’t easily accept charity, but the drought has been so devastating there’s no other choice, according to farmer Kate O’Brien from Tottenham, west of Dubbo.
The Sunday Telegraph last week reported Kate and her husband Justin had been living on expired cereal, instant coffee and diet shakes so they could keep feeding their boys Harrison, 10, and James, 8, at their 2600ha farm.
Mrs O’Brien was overwhelmed by a flood of cash donations from readers and said the Vinnies appeal would help others forced to live in Third World conditions while they spend all their money on keeping their famished livestock alive.
“We’re one of thousands of farmers who need help,” Mrs O’Brien said.
“The farming community is on its knees and we need all the people power we can muster.”
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The O’Briens “don’t have a social life” because they can’t afford the time or fuel money to see friends.
Vinnies will also organise social events for increasingly isolated farmers such as Shane and Melissa Lee, both 47, and their five-year-old daughter Lily, who have enjoyed only two days off work in the past 12 months.
And that was while they waited for an overdue tractor part to be delivered to Broken Hill.
The Lee family’s 627sqkm farm at Packsaddle, two-hours’ drive north of Broken Hill, has for the last two days been engulfed by a dust storm after wild winds whipped up their barren paddocks.
“You can see the red dust coming at you and then day turns to night,” Mr Lee said.
The Lees have already sold off two-thirds of their merino sheep and one-third of their murray grey cattle, but the workload feeding the remaining stock is so relentless Mr Lee recently laughed off a doctor’s strong advice to rest.
Battling through Ross River virus in late April, which caused fever and stiffness, as well as blood pressure high enough to warrant calling an ambulance, Mr Lee wrapped a cold towel around his neck and kept feeding his starving livestock.
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“My blood pressure was very high and depression was setting in, but dams were drying up everywhere and I had no choice but to keep working from 7am to 11pm,” he said.
The sight of his stillborn daughter’s grave from the breakfast table and the pressure to keep his wife and daughter fed keeps Mr Lee going but, by his own admission, he’s not sure how much longer he can last.
Last summer, temperatures at Packsaddle reached 56C and the soil hit 75C — too hot for the paws of Mr Lee’s working dogs.
This year’s daytime temperatures in NSW have been the hottest ever, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).
Large parts of farming land have suffered the driest 15-month period ever.
“The prolonged period of below-average rainfall has coincided with record to very much above-average temperatures, resulting in a rapid and intense drying of the landscape,” a BOM spokesman said.
And BOM’s latest climate outlook for the next three months is predicting high chances of warmer and drier conditions over the drought-affected regions.
Mr Lee spends $20,000 on hay every week to feed his livestock — $10,000 for the hay and $10,000 for trucking it in from South Australia.
The state government last week announced a return to transport subsidies backdated to January 1, but capped them at $20,000 per farmer.
“We’ve had to draw a line somewhere so we can also help cropping farmers and horticulturists that don’t have livestock to transport,” NSW Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair said.
The state government’s $500 million package also included cutting farm rates.
However, both Mr Blair and federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud have not supported suggestions the army should truck in supplies because, they said, it would hurt small private hauling companies.
Donations can be made by calling 13 18 12, at www.vinnies.org.au, or at any Vinnies shop.
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