Tasmania chips in on drought relief efforts

In what was a first for the charity, Need for Feed facilitated the transfer of feed from Tasmania up north, on 15 trucks.

The donation of hay bales helped 65 farming families, all of which received nine to 10 bales each, in areas such as Moree, Walgett, Tulloona, and Collingullie, all in NSW.

And a lot of the hay had been donated by farms that had benefited from the support of the charity in the past, according to Need for Feed organiser Graham Cockerell.

“We provided hay into Tasmania a couple of years ago to dairy farmers struggling with prices, so some of those guys are returning the favour now,” Mr Cockerell said.

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The majority of the hay came from the north-west of the state, most of which was good quality.

“The hay is pretty good over there, even though some of the east coast is on drought-watch,” he said.

He said they were blown away by the support from Tasmania.

“It’s pretty hard to get hay from other places at the moment, we are still getting some out of Victoria and south-east South Australia, but it’s been really helpful to get donations out of Tasmania,” he said.

He said the trip to the Tasmanian port was about 100-200 kilometres for most transporters, with some then getting on the Spirit of Tasmania, and others on passenger ferries.

Once arriving in Victoria, the trip was about 1250km up to the NSW-Queensland border.

It took almost a week to complete the round-trip.

Wright’s Transport’s Robbie Wright, Devonport, Tas, was one of the hay transporters on the road.

Mr Wright left home last Monday morning, and returned on Saturday afternoon.

He said the decision to send hay interstate started with just one truck.

“We had a discussion about how to help drought-affected farmers, and it rolled from just one truck commitment to 15 trucks within two weeks,” he said.

He said the journey was a big team effort, and wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity and contribution of farmers, transporters, and people along the way.

“Even just the support on the way up meant a lot, from the accomodation and meals to the people waving as we drove through towns,” he said.

He credited Glen Phillips and Andrew Arnold as big contributors to the convoy.

And efforts to continue to transport hay from Tasmania will be supported by the Tasmanian government, with Minister for Infrastructure Jeremy Rockliff announcing further transport cost subsidies.

“While a testament to the generosity of Tasmanians, the large number of hay donations has exceeded what was initially anticipated,” Mr Rockliff said.

“Because of this, we are continuing to work with our freight services to ensure that the hay is delivered to where it is needed.”

He said both the TT Line and the Bass Island Line will continue to transport loads of hay, free of charge when they have capacity.

Need for Feed’s Mr Cockerell said more hay will be coming from Tasmania in coming weeks.

They are currently in the midst of planning the charity’s biggest ever hay run, with over 100 registrations of trucks, utes and trailers from Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, and even from NSW, who will make the trip back and forth, already locked in.

“They’ll be going right across NSW, from one side to the other,” Mr Cockerell said.