Mayo man plays heroic role in Australian drought and fire crisis

A MAYO man is one of the organisers of a convoy of trucks involved in delivering water and animal feed to communities in Australia devastated by drought and the ongoing bushfires.

Kieran O'Brien (27), a native of Crossmolina and now residing in Brisbane, is one of a group of Irish tradesmen bringing water and animal feed to the Stanthorpe area of Southern Downes Region, Queensland, where it has not rained for a number of years.

Kieran, backed by his friends Richard and Louise Lenihan from Killarney, set up the Brisbane Irish SEQLD Drought Run, and a convoy of 88 trucks departed Brisbane before Christmas with 150,000 litres of drinking water along with over 330,000 litres of water for livestock.

It was funded by donations in excess of $70,000 Australian dollars.

The delivery was inspired by a similar run from Sydney to northern New South Wales, organised by the Irish community in November.

Kieran, a heavy haulage driver, has been living in Australia for six and a half years, while Richard, a plant operator, and Louise, a stay-at-home mum to three children, have been there for 11 years.

Kieran explained to The Connaught Telegraph: “Australia is suffering its worst drought in history and after watching a TV show one night about a farm suffering in Stanthorpe, Queensland, we decided we had to do something to help these people out.

“With all the Irish construction and civil companies in Brisbane we knew we could potentially get a few water trucks donated and then we would reach out to everybody to raise hopefully enough to purchase pallets of bottled water.

“We chose Stanthorpe, three hours west of Brisbane, as it was facing a tough battle. It was in a major drought but also bushfires ran through parts of rural Stanthorpe back in September and it was a double hit for some residents.

“We had been reading articles prior and seen snippets on the news about Stanthorpe so it was a no brainer.

“They are going to run out of water in the next three or four weeks. Their dam is at 12% of capacity. They are allocated 80 litres per person per day for general use like showering and flushing toilets. They collect drinking water every day from a depot in town, which is where all our drinking water went.

“The depot is run by volunteers and is completely dependent on donations. I had heard many stories about animals being put down or sent to slaughter because it was easier to put them down than let them slowly die in the paddocks/fields from no water or food. They can’t even give away their horses out there because nobody can handle the burden on their shoulders.

“We set up the Go Fund Me account, a Facebook page and we started emailing every Irish business in Brisbane that we could think of.

“We knew this was something the Irish would get behind.

“We had our first big donation ($5,000) from a Co. Clare man, Micheal Benson, the owner of Austrack Equipment. It boosted our spirits and it got the ball rolling for us.

“We hit $10,000 in our Go Fund Me page after 10 days. Louise begged myself and Richard to use whatever spare money we had to buy animal stock feed.

“So Louise worked tirelessly sending emails, updating Facebook regularly. She reached out to her local community in Sandgate for donations of bagged dog food from the supermarket.

“It all escalated. Companies starting buying pallets of drinking water and animal stock feed by the trailer load. Companies where offering up two or three full water trucks to use for stock water and our Go Fund Me account was receiving thousands a day.”

Kieran organised two semi trucks from his boss, Padraig Haskins of G&H Civil and Demolition, to lead the convoy and carry all the stock they bought from their Go Fund Me account, to which G&H also donated $5,000.

Diona Civil Engineering, with whom Richard worked for six years when we first arrived in Australia in 2009, donated five water carts and a load of pallets of water.

H2 Flow, an Australia company, donated 28,000 litres of potable drinking water, as did others. Cosmic Group, an Irish company, sent the most stock water. Maxibor sent two massive water trucks. The level of donations was overwhelming.

Richard stated: “We got busier and busier here and had to take a week off work to get everything finalised for our plan.

“A good friend, Richard Sadlier of Co. Tipperary, helped us organise the loading and unloading and carried the stock feed we bought with money from the Go Fund Me account.

“Four weeks after initiating our plan, we has raised $70,000.

“We set off for Stanthorpe on the morning of December 21 at 6.30 a.m. with a large convoy of 87 vehicles, mostly trucks and water carts.

“Kieran led the convoy the whole way in the G&H semi truck and trailer. We had just over 200 pallets of drinking water, a total of 172,000 litres. This was worth $77,400.

“We had 46 tonnes of animal feed which ranged from pony pellets, cattle nuts, working dog food, horse nuts , poultry feed and chafe. All up the food was worth a combined total of about $50,000.

“When we arrived in Stanthorpe, we went to the showgrounds at the top of the town and we distributed animal feed to farmers. Drinking water was taken to the depot and stock water was taken to farms. Some water was taken to wineries to help save their business.

“It was so hot and dry in Stanthorpe, the fields were like dust. But we were so happy by what we achieved that Christmas celebrations were in order.

“It was great to see the Irish community in Brisbane come up trumps at such a difficult time in the life of Australia,” added Kieran.