Some of the effect of this help is not measurable and is more likened to morale building and encouragement for the farmer personally.

In the early hours of a Wednesday morning a group of Rotarians are awakened by the roaring of alarm clocks. Its 5:30am a typical Bundaberg day, outside the window the sun is already beaming down and there is not a cloud in the sky.

The Rotarians begin a 100km journey to a farmer’s paddock where the ground is hard and extremely dry, ground where there were once many cattle grazing there are now none. The Marques are erected, and the BBQ is prepared. Like all Rotary events the member’s or the club do not receive any reimbursement for travel , they do it because they believe in the cause.

Then the trucks and cars begin to arrive, over 100 farmers assemble under the Marques to hear speakers on a wide range of subject’s including biology, weed management, the use of chemicals , financial counselling and contemporary methods of farm management. Rotary also speaks on programs it has implemented in the area for drought which continues to impact on the farms in the area.

The event is a field day organised by the Rotary Club of Bundaberg Central and funded through the District Drought Committee. The purpose it to receive information on a number of areas of farming and to understand how Rotary can assist the farmers.

The Rotary club of Bundaberg Central partnered with an agricultural retail supplier in Bundaberg – Northside Produce and together the two organisations began to assemble a program that would directly assist the farmers due to extended drought conditions. Farmers were approached to identify what they would like to see delivered as assistance from Rotary and there was overwhelming support for food for cattle.

The club and Northside produce responded by preparing packs of food consisting of hay, protein pellets, lick blocks, dry licks and various other hard feeds. Each pack is approximately $1000.00 in value. The recipients were identified in priority from a data collected from Northside and recipients came from various parts of Bundaberg and surrounding areas. To date 120 packages have been delivered.

The money came from various sources. Firstly, the club was successful in applying for two Rotary Foundation Disaster Response Grants. Secondly the club wrote to all District Governors in the world ( except Australia) and many Districts responded with financial assistance. Finally, the District Drought Committee have been supportive of the project and have provided funding for the project.

The farmers have been overwhelmed by the work of Rotary in connection with the drought and many have commented on the use of single page forms to apply for the packs. The farmers at the field day were very generous with compliments towards Rotary and personally thanked Rotarians at the lunch break.

In addition, many farmers completed the ‘Drought Communities Outreach Program Farm- Financial Assistance Grant Application which have been sent to RAWCS for processing.

There have been many comments from the recipients but the following sums up what many have said

“This assistance came to me so easily in terms of filling out forms and applications and was such a good help. We’ve been impacted by both drought and fires and have been financially and emotionally drained during the entire time. Thanks Northside Produce and Rotary for enabling this great act to take place. This is a great initiative by Rotary. The generosity of strangers is amazing”

The project continues in the Bundaberg region and while we lack the funds the key point to understand is the drought is not over. This is despite good rainfall events over large parts of the district. This does not negate years of well below average rainfalls. We need follow up rain, enough to fill dams and waterholes to secure a winter season capable of supporting restocking and breeding programs. This exercise will not be completed with one good season, and in fact is likely to take several years to fully recover and restock a breeding herd. In order to achieve this restocking, help is needed by hundreds of graziers not receiving Rotary assistance, to ensure that breeding stock numbers are maintained for now and into the future.

We are likely to have a significant backlog of applicants (possibly hundreds of graziers) who will miss out of our assistance due to lack of funds. We believe that this project has been implemented seamlessly and with full transparency and has effectively and efficiently helped many people. 

Rod Medew