Time to lend a hand to flood-affected peers
Call made for volunteers to assist in three-day flood clean-up of Victoria’s impacted thoroughbred breeders
A campaign is under way to fast track the recovery of flood-affected Victorian thoroughbred breeders as organisers of Lend A Hand For The Land call for volunteers to support the ambitious action-plan scheduled for a fortnight’s time.
The large-scale three-day working bee, to be staged from Friday, November 11 through to Sunday, November 13 right across the state’s equine heartland, is aimed at repairing machinery, pumps and fences and chain–sawing fallen trees among a myriad of other jobs to help ease the burden on breeders who are also focused on the remainder of the breeding season and upcoming yearling sale preparations.
The devastation of the floods across large parts of Victoria’s fertile thoroughbred breeding regions will linger long after the water has dissipated, leaving frightening memories and constant reminders of the October 2022 disaster.
The task of cleaning up for breeders and residential flood victims alike will be immense, but supporters of the Lend A Hand For The Land movement hope volunteers can help ensure that it is not an insurmountable one for those involved in the state’s thoroughbred industry.
Dee Gess-Jones, the stud manager of Ben Cooper’s Merricks Station on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, was one of many people who heard the urgent pleas for help at Yulong Stud as floodwaters quickly rose around horses stranded at the Nagambie farm early on Friday, October 14.
“I was foaling mares early on Friday morning when the call from Yulong went out and Sam (Fairgray, Yulong’s chief operating officer) and I go back 20-something years, and when I heard I packed up the float and anything they needed, because I called, I picked them up along the way with one of my staff members,” Gess-Jones recalled yesterday.
“Obviously, we were not there (in time) to pull the horses out with the boats and things like that, but we were there to help load the mares on trucks and help the vets triage what needed to be done when we arrived up there.
“It was something that I’d never seen before. Aside from how it affects people, when animals are hurt, just watching some of the mares with fear in their eyes from the water and they didn’t know where their babies were, it was really hard to watch, to be honest. It was very, very hard to see.”
What Gess-Jones witnessed that day at Yulong and seeing and hearing accounts from other farms in the region, including Noorilim Park on October 15, gave her the urge to help her industry peers in their time of need, leading to the development of Lend A Hand For The Land.
“I’m in a fantastic location down here on the Mornington Peninsula. We don’t come across those sorts of things, but some of the people I have spoken to, I know and have worked really closely with for long periods of time, the stuff they’re explaining to me, such as the smell of the water (lying) on the ground is horrendous,” she said.
“They just want to try and clean up so they can get things back on track, but… they’re also dealing with the breeding season. You can only imagine what it would be like.
“The animal part of me, the empathy comes in, is why I’ve done it (start Lend A Hand For The Land), to try and get some people together to help them get back on track.”
Skilled and unskilled volunteer labour and machinery including chainsaws and spray units as well as tools such as rakes, buckets forks, wheelbarrows and spades, are required, while tasks will include mucking-out boxes, disinfecting and power-hosing barns, cleaning up debris and cleaning out water troughs.
“What I would say is I would urge everyone not to have in their head, ‘someone else will do it’ or ‘they’ll get enough, they don’t need my help’. This initiative is not for that,” Price said.
“Everyone out there can assist and participate and help in one way or another. Their help will be needed, so we’re really calling on everyone to go to the website, register and, pardon the pun, lend a hand to these farmers in our industry that are struggling right now.”
Gess-Jones said interstate industry figures were understanding of their Victorian counterparts’ plight and had pledged financial support, while she hoped the public launch would garner more volunteers to give up their time to assist.
“It has been really positive, but we need people to act on that positivity, even if they can only add a little bit of time or a piece of machinery or something,” she said.
“It doesn’t have to be a great inconvenience for people, it just needs to be a little bit because many hands make light work.”
Price and Gess-Jones also urged affected farmers to reach out for help.
“Quite often, being tough farmers, no one wants to ask for help and we are facing a lot of people saying, ‘there’s other people worse than us, help them’, but those are the people we actually want to help because they need it, but they don’t want to ask for it,” the Merricks Station stud manager said.
ANZ Bloodstock News, Inglis, Merricks Station, Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria, Tim Patterson’s DMC creative agency, commentator Hamish McLachlan’s media and production company Ten Goals and TDN Australia New Zealand are supporting the Lend A Hand For The Land campaign.
To register your commitment to the event in any way, shape or form or if you are one of the equine farms requiring assistance, visit https://lendahandfortheland.com.au/ .