Bringing Colour to the Burnt Surrounds

WHEN Lisa Martin drove past the Merriwa Showground and saw the stress on the faces of farmers who may have lost everything in the fire, she knew she had to do something and yesterday she did.

Lined up and ready to make their way to the fire ground.

“I only had a very small taste of this fire when I went out to rescue some horses from near Merriwa and we got caught in quite a nasty grass fire out there, but we moved about 18 horses in 15 minutes onto the truck,” said Ms Martin.

“As we headed home we drove past the Merriwa Showground and there were people you could just see the stress and anxiety on their faces and I thought I’ve got to be able to do something so I put it on Facebook that if anyone had anything they wanted to donated I’d organise to take it over,” she said.

Lisa said she was overwhelmed by the response with donations being sent in the mail from all over Australia, from local businesses and the Upper Hunter community.

“There were donations of animal feed, dog food, horse feed, poly pipe and irrigation fittings, clothing, veterinary supplies, halters and fly veils, hay, toiletries, 50 pallets of water, bedding, laundry goods and one lady even donated some roses so that the farmers wives could have some colour and greenery in their gardens,” Lisa said.

Dropping off supplies in the fire zone.

By yesterday there was truck loads of donations and Lisa decided to deliver the trucks directly to the farmers for them to pick what they needed and then take the remainder to the Dunedoo showground.

“A lot of these families are proud and they don’t want to go into the show ground at Dunedoo and the whole idea is to go quietly to them and let them have a look through at what may help them out,” she said.

“It really was quite incredible to see how this community rallies and that there is just so much generosity,” Lisa Martin said.

Stopping off for a cuppa on the way.