Debra there to help Aussie farmers in need of a hand
Doing their level best for our hard-hit farming communities, Aussie Helpers, will be at Dubbo Show this year, but only in spirit. Local Dubbo Depot Coordinator, Debra Ball, has been called away to North Queensland this weekend, but wants anyone needing help from this rural-based charity to know, they’re just a phone call away.
“We’re a regional-based not-for-profit, a registered charity, based in Queensland, and our role is to help primary producers in need, and this is such a central agricultural area,” Deb said.
“My job is to support farmers through the hard times, drought, fires, floods, floods, financial depression, when prices bottom-out, with support like food hampers, rates relief, and power bills,” she added.
She said that farmers, being some of the most self-reliant groups in our society, are often the last to seek help when they’re in trouble.
“When things are going bad, the men don’t get outand-about, they stay on the farm, while the wives are still going to town to shop, meet other people, but then they become the ones who have to prop-up the rest of the family as well.
“A lot of my work, is just keeping in touch, just calling-in or phoning-up to do welfare checks on farmers who can get very isolated, all our team are trained in mental health first-aid,” Deb explained.
When things get tight, she said, just putting food on the table, can become a daily struggle.
“We’re currently running a ‘brekky in the bag’ program with Sanatorium, to ensure that kids are at least getting a good start to the day.
“One of our places is at the ‘furthest inland school in NSW’, the bag includes Weet Bix, fresh fruit that is hard to get in some far-western areas, milk drinks like ‘Up and Go’s’ that sort of thing,” Deb explained.
Running as a lone operator for the group, she covers plenty of NSW, and even into Queensland, while also running a working farm herself with her husband at Mendooran.
“I’m pretty much on my own, I’ll do 50–60,000km a year, easy, I’ll go to Cobar, Bourke, back here, and then back out again.
“I go wherever they need me, whoever needs help,” she explained.
She believes the reason why modern farming is such a tough gig, is that it is one of the few commercial enterprises, where your income can dry-up overnight.
“The hard part that many don’t understand, is that if the market plunges, your crop fails, there’s a drought, you have no fall-back income,” Deb said.
“People say, ‘go to town, get a part-time job’, but if you’re on an isolated property, your travel costs may add up to what you can earn anyway,” she said.