Narrabri’s Russell Everson returned home from his massive 3580km round-trip to Adelaide Hills on the weekend, after delivering around three tonnes of animal food supplies to bushfire victims.
His 20-hour journey down to the bottom region of South Australia had him drop off supplies to a race horse ranch, acting as a collection point for donated resources for animals stranded by the fires that ripped through bushlands and residential properties recently.
Staff working at the Globe Derby Fodder said that Russell’s efforts were gratefully appreciated and that everyone’s contributions were thankfully accepted.
Before leaving Narrabri on Thursday, Russell had 30-40 local people make contributions to his cause before getting up to leave at 3am.
The donations of animal food made by local residents, either picked up or dropped off, were too much for just his charity van, with Russell needing to hitch a trailer for the long journey as well.
“The amount of food supplies I got from local residents was staggering, I definitely needed the extra space,” he said.
“Although it was a huge trip I was really glad I decided to do it and will be certainly looking at doing similar journeys like this again.”
Russell kept friends updated on his journey via his Facebook page, showing the devastation of the fires as he uploaded footage once he got to his destination in Adelaide Hills.
Russell said that he was overwhelmed by the show of local support from the Narrabri community and wanted to thank everyone who helped out.
“I would like to thank all the local people and businesses of Narrabri who gave their time and money to this cause,” he said. “At this time of the year it just shows how deep the generosity of our town really is.”
The situation around Adelaide Hills, which was the area worst affected by the recent bushfires, was slowly stabilising, after receiving recent rainfall.
The aftermath of the fire has left extensive damage to homes, vineyards, livestock and wildlife.
The South Australian government has declared the area a disaster zone, and the Insurance Council of Australia has also labelled the fires ‘as a catastrophe’.
It remains unclear just how many animals had been lost in the Sampson Flat bushfire which burnt through 12,500 hectares.