Drought relief truck convoy brings fodder to farms in time-honoured tradition

Australia Broadcast Center

26-07-2025

Australia's vast distances are perhaps the reason the idea of the cross-country trek — in the form of a convoy, a cavalcade or a relief column — has imprinted its tracks so deeply into the nation's collective consciousness.
The inland mission of Burke and Wills met with disaster, but when the doomed duo left Melbourne months earlier in August 1860, the stately tread of their travelling party's horses and camels was accompanied by the cheers of a 15,000-strong crowd.
The men were in search of pastures green — a sight that has, of late, been a little hard to come by across swathes of southern Australia.
For months, drought has been ravaging the continent's temperate zone, leaving many South Australian farmers without water and fodder, and there is a prevailing sense of a final straw.
But, in time-honoured tradition, help has been on the way — and it has been coming from way out west.
Along the Eyre Highway and across the Nullarbor Plain, a veritable "hay fever" of sorts has broken out.
For the past two days, a convoy that would stretch an estimated 3 kilometres if all its trucks were lined up bumper-to-bumper has been bringing thousands of bales of fodder from Western to South Australia.
"This is logistically the biggest hay run ever and it is a massive machine," convoy participant Karen Smith said.
The enterprise has been not so much a "bailout" as a "bales on" — on, that is, to the backs of the approximately 85 trucks that are now destined for 400 farming businesses across Eyre Peninsula, the Adelaide Hills and other South Australian regions that have been battling the impact of the drought.
When Ms Smith — who runs a transport business in Esperance — got wind of what was brewing, she knew she had to be involved.
"We were on a holiday in the Kimberleys up north and we cut it short to do this trip because it's very important to us," she said.
"This is our third hay run … [and] once you get involved, that's it — it's kind of like a lifetime membership.
"It's addictive in that you just love the fact that Aussies are helping Aussies, and I guess in this case it's farmers helping farmers, but you've also got the transport industry, which is obviously what helps get it there."
The convoy is the brainchild of two charities, Farmers Across Borders and Need for Feed, and support has also been provided by the South Australian government.
Transport costs have been covered by $2 million from the state's drought relief fund.
Anyone overlooking the trucks before they set off from Norseman in WA on Friday might have been struck by their resemblance to a giant cattle drive or muster — the vehicles and their cargo of provender were packed together like sheep in a pen.
But when they hit the road, they quickly metamorphosed into a narrow column.
As that column arrived to a warm welcome in Ceduna on SA's west coast on Saturday afternoon, it presented the kind of spectacle that might have sparked the imagination of Henry Lawson, had the bush poet been born into the age of the B-double and the dual carriageway.
"We've got truckies here from New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia," said Need for Feed chair Graham Cockerell as he refuelled his truck in Ceduna.
"Ceduna is probably the first of the real welcoming committee but there's been a few farmers come out onto the road, which is a bit emotional for us.
"We're blown away by that — by the level of support right from the top downwards."
Among the army of drivers is Shepparton truckie and hay run veteran Andrew Linehan, who left for WA nine days ago in order to participate in the operation.
For him, the chief appeal of the enterprise is the camaraderie afforded by the open road.
"It's always been a bit of fun — you get to catch up with some like-minded people as well, and you get the added bonus of helping somebody out who's struggling a little bit," he said.
Progress was painstaking — rain meant the drivers had to take extra care on the road.
While some noted the irony of delivering drought relief amid downpours, Adelaide truckie David Aylett was delighted that the convoy had coincided with the wintry weather.
"It's bringing the rain, which we need in South Australia," he said.
"The farmers — they do it tough at times, and it's just good to do a bit for the country.
But some of that spirit was very much on show along roadsides, where smiling, waving and cheering wellwishers gathered to salute the convoy.
"You just see people out there who've got so much joy on their faces," Mr Aylett said.
"It tingles down your spine, basically."
Among those greeting the group was Ceduna resident of 14 years Karen Toft.
Standing on the edge of the Eyre Highway, she was draped in an Australian flag, which she eagerly held aloft with the passing of each hay truck.
"I think it's a big moment," she said with both local and national pride.
"This is just really amazing — an amazing logistical exercise to get all these trucks through a small town, in Ceduna.
"This is an extraordinary thing, this is what people do, Australians do, in times of need — everyone steps up, and this is part of it."
On the farmers' side of the fence, there is a strong sense of appreciation, but it is being tempered by caution.
Amid heavy rain on Friday, grain growers told the ABC that it was far too soon to be talking about recovery.
"One rain doesn't break a drought," one said.
"We'll still need follow-up, and we'll need a very kind spring to make a season of it."
It's a message the state government understands.
"The rains have come very, very late, which means that a lot of people either sowed crops which then got blown away or didn't grow or have had to re-sow, or both," Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven said.
"What this rain means is I think some hope for our farmers, who have been doing it so, so tough, but it means still that there is a long way to go.
"We've been very, very grateful for the partnership with the charities."
SA Dairyfarmers' Association president Robert Brokenshire said the deliveries of donated hay would make a difference at a difficult time for many.
"If the state government didn't have a freight subsidy package — and if we weren't getting Need for Feed and others bringing in this fodder, frankly — sadly, some banks would be knocking on the doors, I'd suggest, of some farmers, because it's that tight," he said.
"Many dairy farmers would have had to dry their cows off or indeed sell cows, and we probably would have had quite a shortage of milk to supply South Australia.
"It's really been exhausting financially and mentally, so the government being behind us and the volunteer organisations … are an absolute saviour."
The convoy has now reached its final destination in the township of Wudinna, on Eyre Peninsula's wheatbelt, but the job is hardly over.
In fact, the most important stage has not yet begun.
"We've brought just over 6,400 bales," Need for Feed chair Graham Cockerell said.
"We've actually had to rejig some of our deliveries because it's too wet to get in on the farms."
From Wudinna, the vehicles will go their separate ways, taking their fodder in all directions.
"It'll get distributed throughout different parts of South Australia," driver Andrew Linehan said.
"We could end up down the other side into the Adelaide Hills or into the outback areas."
Towards the fateful end of their journey, Burke and Wills were famously confronted by the word "DIG" on a tree along the Cooper Creek — a message pointing them in the direction of buried supplies.
It was not enough to save them.
But digging deep in times of crisis is something that rural communities pride themselves on — a point made by many involved in this weekend's hay convoy.
"It means everything," Karen Smith said.