Redgate farmer Albert Stretton was supervising the loading of the trucks on his property
The movers and shakers behind Eat Dirt Drought … Paul and Julie Kemp, from the Murgon Baptist Church (Photo: Jessie Hodgson)

February 15, 2014

Loaded with hay and hampers, baked goods and biscuits, the  Murgon Baptist Church’s Eat Dirt Drought convoy rolled out of town on Friday afternoon headed for drought-stricken western Queensland.

Headed by a roadtrain, the small team of vehicles made it safely into Roma on Friday night on Day 1 of their journey of hope to Longreach.

(UPDATE 1:30pm: The convoy hopes to arrive at Longreach about 3:30pm today)

The appeal, started by Paul and Julie Kemp, sparked the imagination of the Murgon community with local people putting up their hands to help.

And after some publicity, help also started coming in from much further afield.

“I am so proud of the Murgon-ites, the South Burnett-ites, in fact Australians. Support has come in from all over Australia,” Murgon Baptist Church parishioner Kerry Baldwin told southburnett.com.au, pausing as she added some home-made baked goods to another food hamper.

More than 1000 hay bales as well as dog food and cattle licks were loaded onto the trucks at Albert Stretton’s Redgate farm on Thursday and Friday.

Twelve hampers also hitched a ride with the convoy to be distributed to families between Longreach and Winton.

Kerry said the Uniting Church at Longreach – and former Murgon Pastor Jenny Coombes who recently moved to the town – would be handling the distribution of the donations at the other end of the journey.

And although the convoy is on its way, it’s not too late to help.

The Murgon District Baptist Church is still accepting donations to purchase more hay.

Direct deposits can be made to:

Murgon District Baptist Church
BSB – 034102
Account number – 140499
Reference – HAY

[Photos by Jessie Hodgson and southburnett.com.au]

UPDATE February 17: The convoy made it safely into Longreach on Saturday afternoon and are now back safely home in the South Burnett.

Loading hay bales onto the semi-trailer, the first part of the road train (Photo: Jessie Hodgson)

Albert Stretton, Howard Kingston, Bob Baldwin and Greg Birch help load another trailer 

Part 2 of the road train ready to roll … it was added to the semi-trailer at Durong 
Can we fit a little bit more aboard?  Bags of lucerne chaff are added to the body truck
Kerry Baldwin, from Charlestown, packing hampers at the Murgon Baptist Church hall 
Robert Baldwin, from Charlestown, was helping to load the trucks 
Margaret Kingston and Megan Kingston, 15, from the Murgon Baptist Church with Claire Ziegeler, from Germany, and  Robert Baldwin were helping to load at the Redgate farm
Hard at work loading the trucks … back row, from left, Robert Baldwin, Albert Stretton, Ray Pidgeon and Lindsey Christoffel; front row, Dennis Wolter and Terry Lear (Photo: Jessie Hodgson)

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