Paul Kelly returns to Dirranbandi for farm-focused fundraiser concert
‘We know there’s been some struggles out here with drought and youth unemployment,’ said the singer-songwriter. ‘I think when you’ve got a chance to give back, you take it.’
What prompts one of Australia’s greatest singer-songwriters to detour inland, toward the little-known southwest Queensland town of Dirranbandi?
The answer lies in rock ‘n’ roll for a good cause: a pop-up concert held in the local showgrounds, with proceeds going toward the further education of high school students interested in agricultural studies.
“We played here three years ago, so we have some connections in the area,” Paul Kelly told The Australian on Sunday. “We know there’s been some struggles out here with drought and youth unemployment, and I think when you’ve got a chance to give back, you take it.”
That concert in 2018 attracted 3000 people to a town that’s ordinarily home to just 700, and the influx of tourists raised $140,000 from ticket and bar sales to benefit Dirranbandi State School’s agricultural studies program.
Organisers were expecting a similar number of visitors for the concert on Sunday, which also saw performances from artists including Ian Moss and Troy Cassar-Daley.
“The band and I have always liked getting out of the capital cities,” said Kelly. “This is a good reason to do this concert, and a good way to look at the country.”
“I respond to people who are passionately committed to helping their area,” he said. “I think, ‘There’s someone doing a good job – I’ll go out there and do my job.’ The two of us doing our jobs together can make a good thing happen.”
Dirranbandi State School students Julia Killen and Billy Turnbull are among the beneficiaries of the first fundraiser.
Killen fondly recalls being in the “mosh pit” at the showgrounds three years ago, while fellow Year 9 student Turnbull said of the headline artist, “It’s really good to know that he supports us out here in a small town”
Local farmer Frank Deshon was part of the brains trust behind the initial event in 2018.
This time around, the money raised will go toward bursaries of about $10,000 per annum as a way to incentivise local students with farming interests to return to their home region – which is about 600km west of Brisbane – after completing their studies.
“We’re just trying to stem that bloody migration to the east a bit,” Deshon told The Australian. “We thought if we could help fund these guys and girls to go and study a program down there, then they’ll come back out and put their roots down.”
As for the star power of the headliner – who is in the midst of a sold-out national tour that will see him play 32 concerts before about 29,000 people – Deshon said, “You don’t get a bigger name than Paul Kelly coming to this area”.
“He doesn’t have to come out here: he’s got plenty on his plate to do,” said the farmer. “We feel a bit special that he’s coming out of his way to do this for us. We just couldn’t be prouder: he’s such a champion guy, and we’ll be indebted to him forever.”
Having performed a headline set at the Big Red Bash music festival in far western Queensland last week before a record-breaking crowd of about 10,000 people, Kelly and his band are enjoying the detour from capital cities.
From the singer-songwriter’s perspective, though, the chance to bring entertainment to a corner of the country that rarely sees live music means that the pleasure of returning to Dirranbandi is all his.
“I like to see people with get-up-and-go,” said Kelly. “If people are going to put the effort in to make an event like this happen, then it’s easy for us: we just come here and we play.”
The Australian travelled to Dirranbandi as a guest of Alliance Airlines and Sheehan Events.