Join the Spirit Lifter Convoy 2008
We are all conscious of the personal cost to so many of our farmers of the continuing drought. Although many parts of our state have received some rain, one area in particular is in desperate need of water. This week’s TIME Magazine features a story by Daniel Williams entitled “THE BIG DRY – a savage drought has hit Australian grain growers hard. Some won’t survive.” He writes “The driest continent on earth is in the grip of the worst drought in its recorded history. Beginning in 2002 and spanning, at times, the breadth of the country, the dry spell has pushed farmers to the limits of their ingenuity and patience. Some have cracked. In this hot land, the suicide rate in rural areas is 20% higher than in the cities.
No thought so dark has lodged in the mind of Les Gordon, a rice grower near the town of Barham in the country’s southeast. But the drought’s baking breath has dried and cracked his fields. Gordon should have been harvesting last month across a good portion of his 1,600-hectare farm. Alas, there was nothing to harvest. With no rain in sight and no access to the depleted reserves of government-controlled water, Gordon last September didn’t bother to plant a crop.
He was one among many. “Rice is basically buggered,” says Brett Heffernan, of Australia’s National Farmers’ Federation. In a normal year, Australia’s 2,000 rice farmers produce about 1.2 million metric tons of the grain. This year’s harvest was a paltry 18,000 tons — the lowest yield since 1927, when the country’s rice industry was four years old. “Frustration is the common feeling at the moment,” says Gordon, president of the Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia. “We think we’re really good food producers. But at the moment we’re not producing any food.”
Even in normal times, the Murray-Darling Basin, which covers parts of four states and the Australian Capital Territory, isn’t water rich. On average, it receives a modest 250-300 mm of rain a year, and much of the terrain is semi-arid. Its farmers have mostly thrived until now because over 70% of the country’s irrigation resources are concentrated there. But with the drought dragging on, the allocation of surface water to farmers last Southern spring — planting time for rice farmers — was zero.
“The land is lunar-like now,” says Ian Brunt, who’s on 120 hectares near the New South Wales town of Finley and has been rice farming for 32 years. “The tractor’s throwing up clouds of dust.” Les Gordon recalls the disenchantment among farmers in 1982 when state authorities limited farmers to 60% of their normal water allowance. Now, “I would kill for a 60% allocation,” says Gordon, who still farms with his father, Henry. “Dad planted his first rice crop in 1949. No one around here has seen conditions like this before.”
Under proposed water-policy reforms, farmers in the Murray-Darling Basin will be subject to tighter restrictions than in the past. “My wife and I are sticking it out,” says Ian Brunt. “But we’ve got three boys with equity in their own farms, and they’ve had enough and want out. They’re sick of drought and sick of the politics of water.” Read the whole story online at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1808502,00.html
I have already printed a letter sent to me from a farmer’s wife in that local area. I asked her to tell me what it was like for them personally, on the farm, with their kids, in their home. Her moving story can be found at: http://www.gordonmoyes.com/2008/03/28/the-drought-continues/
They have tried all the avenues of help but the rivers are empty, the dams are dry and the irrigators have nothing to pump. Many people are facing the biggest crisis of their lives. They can no longer bounce back. Endurance has reached its end. A number of Christians in the area believe that a spiritual uplift is desperately needed. They have written and asked me to come and speak to the whole community on the theme ‘Hope for the Farmer in Tough Times.” They have organized a dinner for 400 in the Finley Club on a Saturday night, organized the refreshments, some solid country entertainment and have set about personally inviting every farming family in the community.
Now I never go anywhere with empty hands, and I thought you would like to be a part of it. I am putting together the SPIRIT LIFTER CONVOY 2008. It will cover Saturday and Sunday 6-7th September 2008, concluding with a great church service before returning home. Finley is near Deniliquin in the Riverina rice growing area. It is 650 kilometres from Sydney. About 8 hours drive.
I would like to invite you to join the SPIRIT LIFTER CONVOY, a caravan of cars, vans, trucks and trailers, and people who will travel down with Beverley and myself (with everyone on a self-funded basis). We will stay at local motels, or pay for Bed and Breakfast accommodation with local farmers. There will be no free accommodation because we do not want to be a drain on the farmers, but instead we will put some money into the town.
All CDP branches could encourage members to go down in our convoy. I would suggest people travel together to share petrol costs. What about challenging your Church Youth Group to join the convoy? What about inviting your home group or fellowship group to come along, as well?
At the moment, I am writing to companies for significant donations of food, toiletries, household items, toys for children, personal gifts for family members and pamper packs for every woman, mother and wife, who is doing it tough. These women put their families first and never buy for themselves what the rest of city people take for granted.
I will organize the pick- up of goods from factories by volunteers who live in the city and have a van or trailer. We will also need drivers who have a 4WD or a trailer who can take down the goods and gifts. We will pack 400 huge hampers of goods for each person in the area. We will also need some good musicians for the special church service. The media have already shown great interest in what is a good news story of Christians showing they are good for something!
Many Christian people who will not be able to come but will want to give a donation, I know, that will be given to the local churches to spread to farmers in need. I am organizing at the moment for them to receive tax deductibility for financial donations. You can start the ball rolling now by sending a donation. It will be receipted and it will be tax deductible. Everybody going, like us, will do so at their own expense.
What do you think of this idea? Email me today with your thoughts. From your experience I am sure you can expand this program designed to lift the spirits of our farmers. My office is opening lists now for those who want to be kept up to date with progress of people coming, and gifts for the farmers.
This will be a weekend you will never forget, and you will do more good for other people in two days than in the rest of the year! Let us know if you would like to come. Set about putting some money aside every week for the next twelve weeks for petrol, and join in the SPIRIT LIFTER CONVOY 2008.
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C.
