It’s over! After roughly 80 days and 800 km, the Great Australian Charity Cattle Drive reached its final destination at the Roma Saleyards – the largest saleyards in the Southern Hemisphere.
There, the journey ended for the 1,680 cattle that had been driven all the way from Longreach to Roma by Billy Prow and his experienced team. Bim Struss, a director of BeefBank and our cattle drive chairman led a perfect drive, but it was Chrissie Nott, our operations manager, who was our organisational maestro and carried a huge amount of the workload.
The final few days saw the Drive pass through the outskirts of Mitchell, cross the Maranoa River, and follow the ancient stock route; not coincidentally also an old Aborigine route; and then into Roma.
The cattle arrived about lunchtime on Wednesday 6 August and arrived to mixed fortunes. Luke Westerway of Stockplace Marketing sent his 600 through the saleyards the following Tuesday with BeefBank benefitting from some of the proceeds. The rest went to various feedlots.
That evening, we were treated to a fabulous dinner under the stars which was hosted by the Roma Saleyards and the Maranoa Regional Council. Originally catering for 140 guests, the dinner sold out several times and, as one wag said, tickets to it became more in demand than an AC/DC concert! Eventually, over 200 guests were accommodated.
The executive chef was James Fein from FareShare which, of course, is a major beneficiary of the Drive and of BeefBank, the Rotary Club of Brisbane Centenary’s own charity. It goes without saying that we all ate well and beef was on the menu. We were also entertained by James Blundell (who gave his services free) and a local duo, the John Does.
Senator Susan Macdonald was BeefBank’s brand ambassador. It helped that Macdonald Holdings was one of the two other groups, along with Australian Country Choice, who loaned us the cattle! She called that concept ‘audacious’ and commended BeefBank for having the courage to take it on and to reconnect us all with the romance of droving. But more significantly, she said that the cattle drive underlined the importance, and the role, that food production had in Australia with “ninety five percent of Australian relying on what we do”.
The photo on the left is courtesy of Kat Silvester.
FareShare CEO, Daniel Moorfield told the dinner that the Drive had come at a critical time of unprecedented need and the money raised by the Drive would help FareShare “cook and distribute the nutritious meals to Australians facing cost-of living pressures and communities in flood affected towns and regional and remote areas”. FareShare currently produces around four and a half million meals each year.
One of the highlights of the dinner was the charity auction. Always an entertaining event, one had to be careful not to scratch one’s ear or cough at the wrong time. Otherwise, you could end up owning 200kg of cow conditioner or a pallet-load of horse supplement!
Did the Drive achieve what it set out to do?
There were two simple objectives: Firstly, to raise awareness about the appalling level of food insecurity in Australia and, secondly, to raise funds. Bim Struss, for BeefBank, noted that almost two in five people in Australia suffer from food insecurity. Great media coverage certainly covered this point so that is a tick.
Whilst we are yet to finalise the accounts, we have certainly have come out well on the plus side. So that’s another tick!
Did it all go to plan?
Mostly! All of the cattle were delivered safely and in good condition. Obviously, there will be lessons learnt from this so that we can do even better next time ….and there will be a next time! Bim Struss, Chrissie Nott, and Amanda Prow; all accomplished horse riders; were injured when they each came off horses. We did come in for criticism about the fact that Rotary was mentioned only a few times. This was partly due to the way that the Drive was marketed and branded. Foremost, we wanted to establish the cattle drive as an entity. Thus, the brand was the cattle drive itself and, secondly, the Rotary Club of Brisbane Centenary has put a fair amount of effort into establishing BeefBank as the charity of choice for the meat industry. It made it difficult to take the message down to the third level, but this is something we can think more about next time.
What else did we do?
The Great Australian Cattle Drive was one of the biggest events held in the bush this year. It brought a huge amount of interest to the west of Queensland. Tourism undoubtedly benefitted by this – as we saw by the number of people following the Drive. More importantly, the Drive enthused life into the rural communities, brought a horse-riding experience to hundreds of people includ
ing several students at Mitchell State School (who spent three days on horseback and three nights in swags, sponsored by Suncorp Bank). We had a dinner in Ilfracombe and concerts by Tanya Kernaghan and Jason Owens in both Barcaldine and in Mitchell. In Mitchell, one of the locals mentioned that it was the first time in ages that their beautiful hall had been used and what a pity that was. Of course, the concerts were fully booked out!
But it wasn’t only food insecurity and fund-raising. In Muckadilla, we had a session in the pub where we all wore our undies on the outside of our clothes raising awareness for prostate cancer.
In summary, who would have believed that a small club from the city could have achieved so much out in the bush. It took a great deal of hard work from a small group of people…some of whom actually knew what they were doing….to make this such a great event. At the District Changeover and at our own club changeover, Andrew Rodgers, our BeefBank chairman and originator of this ‘ridiculous concept’ was rightly made Rotarian of the Year. Something for all Rotary Clubs to aspire to in the future. In the words of Nike …. just do it!
PDG Nick Curry
RC of Brisbane Centenary
