By VICTORIA STONE-MEADOWS
FARMERS from Gruyere have dug deep to help others affected by the bushfires that tore through South Australia in November last year.
The fires began on Wednesday 25 November and reduced the area north of Adelaide to a scorched wasteland.
Two people lost their lives, 87 homes were lost in the fire and about 90 people ended up in hospital.
The fires burnt out approximately 85,000 hectares of land; one of the affected towns was Roseworthy, about an hour north of Adelaide, where Gruyere farmer Rob Bennett has friends.
“My mates were hit by a pretty serious fire,” Mr Bennett said.
“They lost everything, all their possessions and their house as well. They are farmers so we did a bit of a collection here to try to help them out.”
Mr Bennett and his son Daniel run a hay baling contracting business and Mr Bennett approached his clients to see if they could spare a bale or two for those hit by the fire in South Australia.
The Bennetts collected 15 ton of hay from their clients and neighbours to be delivered to the fire ravaged property in Roseworthy; enough to feed 800-900 sheep for a few weeks.
“I want to thank everyone personally who donated to this – I know there are going to be lots of smiling faces when I get there,” Mr Bennett said.
Mr Bennett set out on the evening of Monday 18 January for the 13-hour drive to Roseworthy to deliver the hay.
He chose to deliver the hay himself so he could be sure it was going to those that needed it most.
“I would rather take the hay somewhere I know it’s going to be distributed fairly,” he said.
Merv Steer and Andrew Seccull were two of the farmers that donated hay to the cause and said they were happy to help other farmers in need.
“It’s always worth donating to such a good cause,” Mr Seccull said.
“It’s about helping those guys out when they need it and, touch wood it doesn’t happen to us, we know they will help if we ever need them,” Mr Steer said.
Mr Bennett said farmers had a long, proud history of helping one another and this was no different.
“It’s about farmers looking after each other,” he said.
“We’ve been doing this kind of thing for more than 100 years.”
Mr Bennett would like to thank all the farmers who donated hay, including Merv Steer, Andrew and David Seccull, Colleen Gibon and Peter Burgi.
