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Publish date: 20 December 2022
Getting information to where it is needed is the motivation behind The Paddock Run, a community driven Flood Response and Recovery Initiative developed by the Buloke Shire Council and Rural Financial Counselling Service - Victoria West, supporting the harvest workforce and related businesses. Council is partnering with food businesses and grain receival sites in Buloke to deliver flood support and assistance information to the harvest community where they are: in the paddock, truck, tractor, harvester, ute etc., using a less conventional, but more practical method – via their stomachs. When visiting participating food businesses for a grocery shop or to pick up a takeaway meal for a bite to eat, harvest workers are given a card developed with key messages and contact numbers for specialist advisors who can swiftly direct them to the help they need and with links to further resources. The October floods not only impacted around 50% of agricultural properties in Buloke, individual homeowners and businesses were impacted directly and indirectly by flooded roads, cutting off access to their businesses during what would normally be a busy trading period. The Paddock Run encourages us all to check in with one another and look out for our mental health. It provides those all-important phone numbers for professional counselling when we need to get our worries off our chest. Contact numbers for specialist business advisors who are well versed in the issues affecting rural businesses are also provided, helping to take the stress out of finding what financial assistance they are eligible for and assisting them to get it. The initiative is also intended to strengthen the intrinsic connection Buloke’s food businesses have with local primary producers, recognising that in supporting each other they are partnering in investing in their futures. “Food grown and made locally is more often fresher, tastier and good for our health. Eating locally can be beneficial to the environment with less food miles associated,” said Mayor Cr Alan Getley. “We are reminding our community that when we buy local food it strengthens our community in many ways, and continuing to do what we always do in Buloke – look out for each other.”
Information about flood support and assistance