By Alesha Capone
A group of businesses in the west, including Point Cook’s Agfab Engineering, are pooling their resources to help drought-stricken farmers in New South Wales.
Agfab director John Frattin and his son Joe will donate 100 bales of hay to farmers in Broken Hill, through Rural Aid Australia’s Buy a Bale initiative.
The two men were on site as the hay was harvested and baled at their family’s property in Little River on Friday, before being loaded onto semi-trailers.
Mr Frattin said some employees donated their time to drive the hay to Broken Hill.
Semi Skel Hire in Laverton, Green Crop Products in Hoppers Crossing and Damorange Refrigerated Transport in Werribee South have also lent vehicles to help transport the hay, while Western Industrial Plumbing Service, Selman Brothers, JDK Management and Matt Brown – some of which are based as far away as Shepparton – also helped out with transport.
Joe said that since he began talking about donating the hay, the businesses of AIRR, Jamac Earthmoving and Plant Hire, Designer Look Kitchens, A1 Custom Rides, Sign Raizor and Wallington Rural and Garden Supplies had donated dog food and horse chaff to be transported to New South Wales.
Werribee South’s Christou Farms, D. Berias & Sons, Fresh Select and Patsuris Premium Produce have also donated boxes of vegetables to help feed the farmers, with Kalafatis Coolstores, R. Hasan & Co and Spencer Ranch also making donations.
“All these people involved are small families or small family business’s with big hearts – just goes to show when people are in need, how much everyone wants to help,” Mr Frattin said.
