Brendan Farrell: 'If we don’t support farmers, in 10 years we’ll be importing 100% of our food'

“That’s a bit personal,” Brendan Farrell arcs up. He’s had enough of those kind of questions and refuses point-blank to answer any about family or upbringing either. That’s fair enough. Farrell is a man on a mission.

The fourth-generation farmer from Burrumbuttock, New South Wales, has been organising massive convoys of hay to drought-stricken farmers since 2014. Last year 260 trucks and 400 trailers carted 14,000 bales to Ilfracombe in central-west Queensland, where his crew also helped build bar facilities at the racecourse. In January this year, on his 13th run, 150 trucks and 200 trailers took $2m worth of hay to Cunnamulla in south-west Queensland.

Yet it’s a lo-fi operation. Farrell posts a Facebook message about where the next hay run is going and the potential dates, then drivers contact him offering their trucks, which will be loaded with donated hay. Farrell puts their names and phone numbers on a sheet of paper, which may or may not be kept in the cab of his truck. “We put on entertainment,” he says. “We take country music singers and we have a few beers with the locals who are doing it tough, so we feed their animals, feed their souls.”

Everyone wants a piece of Farrell. Considering Australia’s most successful cultural exports are probably Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin, it’s no surprise the media – locally and internationally – loves this true-blue Aussie in cut-off denim shorts and with a laugh like Wolf Creek’s Mick Taylor. He is cast as a man for the people, particularly after making the honour roll of 2016’s NSW Australian of the Year awards as the local hero.

Source: theguardian