Last week I reported on our Club’s visit to Dubbo Western Plains Zoo. This week I would like you to share our experience visiting Wellington.
On the Monday Vicky and I travelled to Orange for the night to find freezing weather and snow flurries. We made out by retiring to a winery and sat in front of an open fire with an enormous cheese platter and enjoyed a very extensive wine tasting.
On Tuesday we proceeded to Wellington in fine weather for our joint meeting with the Wellington Rotary Club. The Club has a long history starting in 1937. It has lost members and currently has only 20 who meet fortnightly. Their meetings are at the Hermitage Hill Resort, a charming hotel high above the town created from the 1904 buildings of the former Wellington Hospital. The place oozed charm with wide verandahs and high ceilings and a beautiful function room where we met.
Our Northbridge contingent consisted of 8 members and 3 partners and the Wellington Club added 28 more with members and partners made up of town folk and the local farming community. So small is the world one confessed to being a first cousin of our own John Garrett!
We were warmly greeted with their members very appreciative of our visit and contribution to the project to take local children to the Zoo. President Greg Hart gave special mention to Susan Law, our member now, but a past President of their Club.
The guest speaker on the night by coincidence was Sally Bryant, the ABC Rural presenter for the Western Plains. Sally lived in the area but this was her first visit to the Club. She told us of the evolving drought over her 6 years in the job. She has seen first-hand the efforts of farmers to develop new methods to cope and she spent much time bringing new ideas to her radio audience. One of the issues she faced was always to be constructive and not to lecture to a very competent farming community.
Sally has found the growing drought was leaving her very depressed and she was about to leave the program after her many years. She commented that, if she was feeling that way, how tough was it for the farming and town communities.
Sally was very taken with our project to take the local kids to the Zoo. She was on leave but promised to contact the Dubbo studio and to have us interviewed. Sure enough we got calls in the morning to be in the Dubbo studio to be interviewed by Nick Healy, the breakfast presenter. He told us he got an urgent late night call from Sally, wrecking his beauty sleep before his early morning gig. He gave us a good interview and allowed us to tell our story.
You can see that our Northbridge team had a great time in Wellington and visiting the Zoo. Karin and Derek even went Glam Camping one night with the animals. I can recommend to members to take the opportunity to visit the Wellington Club and enjoy a visit to the Zoo. The District can sure use the financial injection.
It was also my pleasure last Friday week to travel to Mascot to pick up two more laptops from WorkVentures. This time they were for two applicants from StreetWork seeking support from the SEE’s Fund.
It is really pleasing to be getting the applications from StreetWork. The proposals are coming from the Care workers themselves who are talking to each other and making direct application.
Peter Antaw
Report from Susan Law
Ian and I drove up to participate in the first drought-affected Primary School Zoo Outing, resulting from the combined initiative of the Wellington and Northbridge Rotary clubs. On the way up we stopped at each small town, tried to find something to buy and chatted to the locals about the impact of the drought.
Shops everywhere in the drought-affected area are battling as people just do not have any cash to spend. This has resulted in many closures throughout the region. Ian chatted to two lovely young ladies at ‘Just Jeans’ in Bathurst. When he tried to pay for his pants their credit card reader died. The one lady collapsed onto the floor in tears saying “this is just the final straw"! Ian was happy to go and draw the money from an ATM, but the next customer in line abandoned his purchase as he did not have the time to go and find cash.
Local organisations are organising food drops to people in need but in many instances they are having to ensure that the farmer is not at home as they are proving too proud to accept aid – the women are gratefully pragmatic!
As is the case with many other croppers, a friend from Wellington has paid for diesel, fertiliser, weed spray and seed in each of the past three years and each time his crop has failed – he is currently battling with shingles which he has been given to understand are an outcome of the stress he is under.
Stock farmers are having to buy in both grain and hay and are continually cutting down on stock numbers in order to try and conserve the supply. Budgets are at breaking point and the question for everyone is how long they can continue in this vein? The alternative of selling all stock as meat would probably mark the end of the enterprise as it would be well-nigh impossible to start again, as replacement animals would not be available.
A local farmer in the Wellington district recently shot his cows and then himself – don’t know what family he left behind.
Everywhere I went I asked for ideas as to how we could help. The replies included providing:
- coupons to use for showers and washing clothes.
- second-hand clothes for young people to use at end of year formals.
- opportunities for farmers to sell surplus equipment.
- opportunities where drought-affected families could gather for a free meal and social interaction.
- organising a community ‘rain dance’!
Susan Law