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Speaker 1: Good news for farmers here in Essay. There's a convoy

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Speaker 1: on the road right now bringing cereal grade, premium grade

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Speaker 1: cereal hay into Say and they're heading for Jamestown, north

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Speaker 1: of Adelaide. Of course, they'll be there tomorrow afternoon. They're

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Speaker 1: coming from Grenville in New South Wales. It's a seventeen

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Speaker 1: hundred kilometer trip and they'll arrive tomorrow afternoon ahead of

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Speaker 1: a farmer's community connect event which is being held on Friday.

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Speaker 1: Let's find out all about it. Organizer Mick Dunn from

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Speaker 1: the Rapid Relief Team is on the line. Met good evening.

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Speaker 1: How are you. Oh, hang on, Mick, Sorry my fault.

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Speaker 1: Let's actually connect you to the switchboard. There we go.

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Speaker 1: Hello Nick, Yeah, how are you good? Thank you very well.

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Speaker 1: So you're on en route at the moment we are.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're in hay this season think Credenvill today. It's

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Speaker 2: been a big day. The farmer had never laded so

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Speaker 2: many bales of hay and she would play in your lives,

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Speaker 2: but got the job done. And here we are in Hey,

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Speaker 2: looking forward to tripping the south a Stratia morrow morning.

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Speaker 1: Okay, twenty seven trucks, I understand correct.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yep, total of nine hundred tons of fire for

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Speaker 2: farmers who are in desperate need. We're able to bring

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Speaker 2: a little bit more than we expected. We're really heartened

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Speaker 2: to hear the drivers today at the farm. So you know,

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Speaker 2: I can fit another two, I can fit another three.

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Speaker 2: They just caen to get as much as much support

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Speaker 2: as possible to these people because a little bit means

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Speaker 2: a lot to them.

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Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, how is this organized? Who it comes up

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Speaker 1: with doing this?

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Speaker 2: We have done nearly forty Farmers Community Connects over the

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Speaker 2: past seven or eight years. We did it initially for

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Speaker 2: Proud but we have done it in the meantime for

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Speaker 2: flight affected farmers. So when you know, times of pressure

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Speaker 2: come upon them and the way that goes against them

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Speaker 2: and fodder is a problem. Farmers go through a lot

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Speaker 2: in terms of their mental health and farmers being farmers,

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Speaker 2: are very stoic and resilient. They tend to kind of

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Speaker 2: bunk it down, try to deal with their own problems.

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Speaker 2: But Farmers Community connect is really about telling them, look,

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Speaker 2: just give yourself permission to take a day off the land,

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Speaker 2: come out, pick up some food off your animals. Have

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Speaker 2: a coffee and a burger ass meet some farmers and

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Speaker 2: you realize there's a lot of people in your situation

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Speaker 2: and we can't fix their problem, but what we can

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Speaker 2: do is remind them that they're not anyone's going through it

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Speaker 2: and connecting with service providers and people that can help.

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Speaker 2: And everybody goes away saying it's been a great day.

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Speaker 2: So it's just uplifting for them.

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Speaker 1: Okay, you just love doing it. Yeah, I'm sure You've

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Speaker 1: got over two hundred registered to attend the Farmer's Community

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Speaker 1: connect on Friday, and I imagine they're coming from all across.

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Speaker 2: They say, yeah, a lot of them are coming up

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Speaker 2: to two hours. I'm a little bit more, which really

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Speaker 2: speaks to the extent of their need. That people are

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Speaker 2: prepared to trail it farther to need the support and

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, even'll be glad they made the trip.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. Who's rapid Relief team. So you're just

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Speaker 1: a bunch of farmers that come together, You see the

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Speaker 1: need and get together and want to help out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we have. We work across four particular focus areas,

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Speaker 2: things like homelessness and youth and mental health, support, health

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Speaker 2: and disability, but farmers is something that's a warehouse for sure,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of volunteers are farmers, and I love

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Speaker 2: the opportunity to part back. But on this particular trip,

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Speaker 2: all these people are business owners from the city who

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Speaker 2: have these type of vehicles in their fleet, and they're

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Speaker 2: more than happy to make their vehicles of aible and

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Speaker 2: give up their time because I know it means a

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Speaker 2: lot to the farming communities.

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Speaker 1: We've had groups in the past ask the state government

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Speaker 1: for help for fuel. Is that a thing people doing.

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Speaker 2: That or absolutely? I would like to give a shout

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Speaker 2: out to Persia. They have worked hard to try to

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Speaker 2: do different things and help farmers, and I think fodder

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Speaker 2: is really the big need at the moment. And with

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Speaker 2: their transport assistants it's allowed us to come so far

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Speaker 2: from the South Wales. It makes a difference in the

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Speaker 2: amount of support we're able to bring. Initially we set

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Speaker 2: out to bring a thousand bales, but quickly saw the

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Speaker 2: need and increase that to twelve hundred. But please just

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Speaker 2: say we've got nearly sixteen hundred one.

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Speaker 1: Now that's great. How far does that go though? I

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Speaker 1: mean it sounds good and certainly will be much appreciated

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Speaker 1: and is needed, But how long does that last realistically, Well, you.

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Speaker 2: Can do the mass of sixteen hundred and two hundred

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Speaker 2: and twenty farmers. We have tried to favor the smaller

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Speaker 2: mum and dad farmers, the people that are really they're

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Speaker 2: fairly existence depends on the land. Some people are a

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Speaker 2: bit bigger and more feedbop style than able to you know,

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Speaker 2: have bigger pockets perhaps and can get through this a

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Speaker 2: little bit easier. But what we were really particularly moved

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Speaker 2: by is these mum and dad and small family farms

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Speaker 2: that are really looking at, you know, what is the

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Speaker 2: future for us. We can't hold on much longer as

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Speaker 2: to how long it goes. We know that it doesn't

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Speaker 2: fix the problem, and there's some other good charities that

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Speaker 2: bring help in the area too. I think it's just

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Speaker 2: really about keeping farmers optimistic because some of them are

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Speaker 2: at the point of giving up.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, and that's the last thing we need. So

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Speaker 1: premium grade serial hay does that work for? Is it

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Speaker 1: dairy cattle? Beef cattle? Does it matter?

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Speaker 2: We we're heading for Jamestown, so the prominently the area

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Speaker 2: there is quite heavy with sheep live the cattle. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: to the question of dairy cattle, they require a particular Yeah,

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Speaker 2: they do a bit richer can, but that's not a

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Speaker 2: characteristic of theory we're heading forward to here.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so this is really positive. So if people

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Speaker 1: want to help out with the Rapid Relief Team in

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Speaker 1: some way, and there could be people wanting to give

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Speaker 1: donations to enable you to do this in the future,

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Speaker 1: for instance, sort of volunteer, whether it's a Jamestown somewhere

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Speaker 1: else is I'm sure there's a website or ways of

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Speaker 1: doing something for you.

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Speaker 2: There certainly is yet website www dot rtglobal dot org.

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Speaker 2: You can find out more about what we do there

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Speaker 2: and you can make a donation or you can certainly

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Speaker 2: send us a message if you a lot to get

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Speaker 2: involved in future.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, fantastic. And you mentioned that the community connect on Friday.

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Speaker 1: Support services will be there. I imagine person will be

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Speaker 1: there with drought relief information and everyone else is well

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Speaker 1: involved in keeping farmers afloat.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, correctly. We've got people there that specialize in the

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Speaker 2: legal aspects that farmers need and offering to give them

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Speaker 2: free legal advice. We have the local medical center giving

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Speaker 2: free free flu shots and blood pressure checks. There's a

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Speaker 2: whole bunch of people out there that really want to

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Speaker 2: just do something to help, and I think I'll get

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Speaker 2: a lot more than just a burger and a good day.

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Speaker 2: There'll be some good information and services too.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, fantastic, Nick. Thank you so much for your time tonight,

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Speaker 1: Safe travels tomorrow coming in from Hay and Chee. That's

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Speaker 1: a boring drive coming over the border from there, isn't

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Speaker 1: it coming through mill Dura and all of that.

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Speaker 2: But I guess if any of your readers are in

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Speaker 2: Rendmark or Morgan or Borough, there's a good chance I say.

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Speaker 1: Oh, good eye, all right, well give them awave. If

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Speaker 1: you're there and see that the convoy come through. You

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Speaker 1: won't miss that, I'm sure. Twenty seven odd trucks and

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Speaker 1: however many support vehicles traveling with you too. But excellent

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Speaker 1: initiative and well done doing it, and I'm sure farmers

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Speaker 1: he will be very appreciative and very glad to see

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Speaker 1: you tomorrow and Friday.

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Speaker 2: Very good. Thanks for interesting.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for your time. Mick Dunn, organizer from the

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Speaker 1: Rapid Relief team bringing Hay to drought affected farmers here

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Speaker 1: in essay. How good is that