Neville – “I’m A Clunes local, grew up in that area all my life. I’ve been in the Rural Fire Service here for 36 years and 16 years of that has been as Captain. For the last 15 years or so we have put a crew together to come and help pack the pallets for Anne (previous story)and the Food for Farmers.
I was approached by cattle producers Richard and Mary Gibson in Bexhill who had excess grass and they wanted to know if I had a use for it. Originally I said no but then I got thinking. They donated the grass and then my brother Stephen and I supplied the machinery and we got to work. Anne has arranged to reimburse for the cost of the diesel and the string to tie the bales but the rest we did for free.
We baled over 3,600 bales which have all gone out west. They went to a town called Bolivia, some went to Tenterfield, the Mole River, Armidale and about 800 went to Mungindi.
I had the easy job really, mowing, cutting and let it dry a bit. My brother Stephen did most of the raking the rows to bale it. I baled it which is mostly done with machinery. Most of the farmers who needed it organised the transport. The first 2 days we did about 1,700 bales and then we got the rain which put us off for a week. We baled the other 1900 which went off on the Saturday.
It wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of Richard and Mary Gibson. Today we have our crew here, lots of family members, in Lismore helping Anne get these pallets loaded. We live in a good community.”