Bec and Stephen Murray of Murray’s Earthmoving are participating in a hay run and donating barrels of hay to the drought-stricken farmers of Queensland.
“We’re donating 108 round barrels of ocean and ryegrass to some of those farmers up there because they haven’t had rain or anything like that for years.”
“It’s with the Burrumbuttock Hay Run, which Brendan Farrell has organised; he does it every year to Queensland to the drought-stricken farmers up there,” said Bec Murray.
The drought being broken here in Yass and surrounds provides an opportunity for the farmers of the region to help out the regions still stuck with drought.
“We’re lucky enough here that the drought broke in February for us, and we had a cracking year last year and our hay bailing on our property and surrounding areas.”
“We’re stocked up completely with hay for our own stock, so Stephen and I decided we’d like to help someone out now that we can with doing that,” she said.
Brendan, or “Bumpa” as he has come to be known, is the organiser of the hay run, and his large following online get to witness just how bad the effects of drought remain in some of these areas.
“I think it’ll be a real eye-opener to see how bad it is up there, and Bumpa does Facebook updates all the time that we’re watching, and he was showing us how dry it is up there, and it’s actually really scary, to be honest,” said Bec.
As well as having their earthmoving business, the Murray’s help run a family farm just outside Yass and hope their deeds will lead to good “karma” if they are to experience a drought in the future.
“We have no connection to anyone up there at all, but I feel if we are to ever go back into drought, it’s sort of karma.”
“If you do something good, hopefully, someone in the future will help you out if something happens to you.”
“We just really want to help; that’s the main thing,” said Bec.
Whilst the drought in this region was undoubtedly harsh, it fails to compare to the drought still ravaging parts of Queensland.
“It never got as bad down here as it is up there, and we were pretty lucky. We still had a bit of feed around; we were feeding our sheep three times a week on grain,”
“Up there, they just have no feed whatsoever. It’s just dirt which is scary.”
“They obviously need the hay we are able to take through to keep their stock alive and keep it going until hopefully one day the rain does come,” she said.
Yass Public School, the school the Murray’s children attend, are doing a “Dress like a Farmer Day” for a gold coin donation to help fund some of the expenses of the trip, mainly the estimated $3000 fuel costs.
To contribute to the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners, head to their Facebook page, where details on how to donate can be found.
Bec will be blogging her experiences on the journey online, so keep a lookout for that when it comes online.
Max O’Driscoll
