After huge success in January, hay run founder Brendan Farrell will lead the 11th convoy today
Following the success of January’s trip to drought-stricken farmers, the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners have doubled their numbers for today’s 11th trip up the Australian east coast.
With close to 280 prime movers hauling almost 400 trailers of hay, the convoy is the biggest yet from the group organised by Riverina farmer, Brendan Farrell.
“This is going to probably be the biggest thing that Illfracome-Longreach has seen for a while,” Farrell says on the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners Facebook page, which is currently inundated with images of trucks being loaded hours out from the run.
Scheduled to arrive on April 1, the convoy has been supported by donations from IGA Australia and “from kids, who are six, who have handed me their pocket money right through to pensioners,” Farrell says.
A collection bolstered by a $50,000 donation from BP this morning on Channel Nine’s Today program, a move that Farrell says “will allow them really concentrate on the next run after this” and “get more hay to more farmers.”
While the 14,000 bales of hay make up most of the products being carried to Queensland, donations of fresh produce, hampers, gift packs, a cubby house, bark, and pallets of dog food are also being taken to help the local community.
“We’ve got a whole lot of people coming up who are going to do health checks for all the farmers up there and their kids,” Farrell says on Today.
A range of people will also be on hand for other services, such as massages and haircuts.
Leaving from Burrumbuttock at 3:30pm today, the convoy will stop at Darlington Point in New South Wales overnight.
The next legs will see the runners pass through Cobar and into Wyandra in Queensland for the second overnight stop.
On Friday, the convoy will arrive in Illfracombe, after a lunch stop in Tambo, at around 3:30pm.
Trade Trucks first spoke to Farrell in December, ahead of the January 7 run, when he spoke of setting the world record for the longest convoy of donated hay.
The run, which saw Farrell received wide-reaching acclaim, carted 5,000 bales of hay on 125 trucks 1,860km to 270 drought-affected farmers in Queensland.
Acclaim that Farrell rejected.
“Social media is putting a lot of pressure on me, saying I’m famous and all this other type of thing – but people need to realise I’m just a bloke with a truck,” he says.
“You don’t have to be famous to help people.
“You don’t need to have a million dollars to help people.
“You put your hand up and you just get on and do it.”
Donations to the hay run can be made to the Rotary Club of Sydney, details of which are on the convoy’s Burrumbuttock Hay Runners Facebook page.