by Luke Voogt
A convoy of Geelong senior citizens has hit the road to deliver more than 6000 litres of water to drought-stricken farmers in country NSW.
The group hoped to deliver a morale boost to the struggling town of Ivanhoe, its leader Geoff James said before heading off on Wednesday.
“They have struggled over many years to keep their little town going and this drought is taking its toll,” the Highton local told the Indy.
“Idea for getting some publicity is to encourage other city people to help out our country cousins who are doing it pretty hard at present.
“It might inspire other groups and people to do similar things.”
Geoff planned the 668km drive a after seeing recent television segment about struggling and depressed farmers.
Prolonged drought had left Ivanhoe, population 196, without fresh drinking water and reliant on filtered bore water to drink, Geoff explained.
“It tastes pretty bad. The morale of many people in the area is very low.”
So he and fellow Geelong Life Activity Centre Cycling Group members began raising money to deliver 400 10L containers of drinking water and 165kg of oranges
The group also planned to buy 400 600ml bottles, which the farmers could return for a 10 cent refund, Geoff said.
Farmers in the town normally donated their refund to a local cancer charity, he said.
The town’s postmaster and his wife were thrilled about the Geelong community donating money to the convoy, Geoff said.
“They initially couldn’t believe what they were hearing and what we were planning to do.”
To support their cause visit www.gofundme.com/f/dky2m-wateraid.
