Council would like to extend our sincere thanks to the teams of volunteers from BlazeAid and Need for Feed who have been on the ground in our community around the fire effected areas of Willawarrin following the devastation of the October 2023 bushfires.
Need for Feed
Need for Feed were first on the scene, supplying our Shire’s fire effected farms with truckloads of hay to feed their stock. Countless trailer loads of hay have been donated by farmers from regional Victoria, and convoyed up to Willawarrin, unloaded and distributed to farms in need. A true testament to the mateship across Australia’s agricultural communities and the valuable work that Need for Feed does in times of crisis.
From one of the Need for Feed truck drivers “Long day but we made it to Willawarrin NSW tonight at 6.00 pm, we travelled through Kempsey to get here and the streets were full of Mum’s, dad’s, grandma’s, grandpa’s and children holding thank you banners and waving to blow our horns it was very moving to see this as the area has suffered so much in the past 3 years, makes us proud to be truck drivers.” (Source: Facebook)
BlazeAid
BlazeAid have now set up a base camp at the Willawarrin Showground. Council has been working together with BlazeAid to establish power and water arrangements at the site and working with Leading Edge Telecoms who have graciously aided with enhancing mobile connectivity at the site. Thank you also to the team at B-Rite Home Appliances West Kempsey who have provided a commercial washing machine to use at the base camp for the duration.
The BlazeAid base camp will be staffed by up to 15 volunteers. With 67 requests for assistance so far, the team will be on the ground helping our regional community to rebuild.
Since its establishment, BlazeAid base camp at Willawarrin has cleared 1.8km of damaged fencing and have completed and installed 300m of new fencing to fire effected properties.
Thank you to the teams from Need for Feed and BlazeAid and all those across Australia who have donated hay, their trucks, equipment, time, and provided assistance in the disaster recovery process in Kempsey Shire.
