The charitable arm of RACQ has reached out a helping hand to 12 Julia Creek farmers who were impacted by the one-in-500-year floods that hit north Queensland in February.
A group 20 of RACQ Foundation volunteers travelled from Brisbane to provide practical, on-the-ground support and assistance to farmers and their communities as they began to rebuild their lives.
“These people have been through some absolutely horrific times,” said Renee Smith, RACQ Foundation spokesperson. “For six years, the farmers of northwest Queensland have struggled to keep their livestock alive during drought, worked to make ends meet and prayed for rain. Then, they go through the worst floods seen in hundreds of years and lose their livestock in days and weeks following. When we were looking at locations for our next RACQ Foundation assistance project, Julia Creek topped the list.”
Smith said the volunteers would help farmers with jobs around their properties.
“We’re so pleased to be in town to help wherever we can – we have both mechanical and non-mechanical staff as well as our financial planning team to help locals with advice and assistance,” Smith said. “We’ll be on hand to rebuild fences, to paint sheds and homes, to help clean-up, and to feed stock. These locals we’re working with are incredibly resilient people and it’s great to see many starting to look towards a brighter future. We’re happy to be here on-the-ground playing a small part in helping.”
