Shine Awards: How a farming accident led to formation of a new rural charity

Felicity Burton can barely remember the accident six years ago that changed her life forever.

Grazier and Common Ground Foundation founder Felicity Burton has been nominated for a Shine Award. Picture: Maddi Smith

Felicity Burton can barely remember the accident six years ago that changed her life forever and set her on a path to helping families from all over rural Queensland.

Working as a contract musterer on the Darling Downs, she was puttering around with her toddler son Kory on a quad bike at the end of a hot day like any other.

They’d just finished feeding horses and locking the dogs away, when a spooked sheep collided with the front wheel of the bike.

“I don’t remember much more but I obviously rolled the bike,” Ms Burton recalled.

“It was such a freak accident.”

With broken ribs and a shattered collarbone, Ms Burton was taken to a hospital in Toowoomba while Kory was flown to Brisbane with head injuries.

“There was really no telling what it was going to look like when he came out of his coma,” Ms Burton said. “There was two weeks of waiting before he came to. Initially he was all paralysed down his left side … and he had to learn how to walk and talk and eat.”

While Kory recuperated and attended countless physio sessions, the family relied on accommodation provided by the Ronald McDonald House charity across the road from the hospital so they could stay by his side.

Kory recovered and is now “a rough and tumble seven-year-old” who enjoys life on the family’s cattle farm at Cooranga North, 250km northwest of Brisbane, where Ms Burton, an avid campdrafter, and her husband Karl run paddock-to-plate business Burton Family Beef.

But the gratitude felt towards Ronald McDonald House left an impression and when a friend faced similar circumstances and struggled to find affordable family friendly accommodation in Toowoomba, Ms Burton decided to act. Along with two friends, she co-founded the Common Ground Foundation, which provides low-cost accommodation for rural families whose family members are in hospital.

“One thing led to another and within three months of coming up with the idea we ran a fundraiser and raised over $350,000 and by March the following year we had purchased three two-bedroom units in Toowoomba,” Ms Burton said.

“They’ve each got a kitchen, laundry, bathrooms, living spaces and a big backyard, which is really important for families.

“We knew what it was like to have to put your family up and … go into the unknown, and there’s enough going on with medical things and you just want to be together.

“I really appreciated (Ronald McDonald House) and being able to create something like that in Toowoomba was really fulfilling.”

The facility, which accommodates families living more than 50km outside of Toowoomba, is administered by the Toowoomba Hospital Foundation and subsidised through the Queensland government’s Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme.

“It’s a great partnership because it is done on a 100 per cent volunteer basis,” Ms Burton said.

For her work to support rural Australians, Ms Burton has been nominated for a Shine Award.

Now in their eighth year, the awards – run by rural masthead The Weekly Times and supported by Harvey Norman – recognise the achievements and contributions of women across rural and regional Australia.