It is easy to take the approach of looking after your own backyard and not worrying about anyone else.
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Even when life’s going smoothly, there are always things that you can do for yourself or your neighbours first.
You might read about problems a lot further afield and have no trouble in empathising, but more often than not that’s as far as it goes.
The daily grind and all its challenges can keep our focus quite parochial – and there is nothing wrong with that.
But that wasn’t the attitude of truckie Brendan Farrell and the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners.
If there ever was a sector where there is always a challenge, it’s farming.
Even when the sun’s shining and the rain’s falling – and the prices for what you’re producing on the rise – agriculture is a tricky business.
It’s a lifestyle and office though that most would not swap for anything, yet logic has it that good years are followed by bad.
You make the most of what you’ve got to plan for the future to make sure you can ride the peaks and troughs.
But that wasn’t the attitude of Mr Farrell and his amazing group of people, who didn’t hesitate to think of others first.
For the past two years now, the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners have been doing their level best to help drought-stricken farmers in Queensland – in particular, out west.
Hay that could have easily been saved for a not-so-rainy day in the Border region was instead put onto the back of semi-trailers and hauled the length of the country.
If ever there was any doubt about this amazing, incredibly generous endeavour it was quickly cast aside when the hay arrived.
As was reported at the time, “flags waved, horns tooted and beers were offered, but most of all, tears flowed” as the convoy of 125 trucks rolled into Ilfracombe at dusk back in early January.
The hay runners had managed to organise the delivery of 5000 big bales of hay, transported some 1860 kilometres. All up, 11 convoys have carried more than $10 million of donated hay.
It has been an absolutely tremendous success and one worthy of the highest accolades, though Mr Farrell and his crew’s work was never done with that in mind.
It is quite fitting then that Mr Farrell has been nominated for Australian of the Year.
He would be a more than worthy recipient of this highest award.