Flooding across the Riverina

A meeting was help in Wagga Wagga last week with a large variety of service providers and community members to look at what assistance was available for Primary Producers who had been impacted by floods a wet weather. Over the last couple of months there have been thousands of hectares flooded and tens of thousands with rain damaged crops.

Government assistance tends to concentrate on Local Government infrastructure and there is virtually no assistance with agricultural losses. This can be a problem for those farmers who have lost all their crop and need to money to get through Christmas and buy food, let alone repay loans, plant next years crop etc. Kel and I are experiencing a marked increase in the number of requests for welfare help. The Riverina Presbytery has also asked Fred and Anne Humphrey, who did pastoral visiting in the drought, to return and work with flood affected farmers.

The group that gathered in Wagga Wagga expressed concern at the situation and also the potential for increased levels of stress and depression in Jan when farmers are able to see how their harvested ended up and how much they don't have. I suspect there will be an increase in calls for pastoral support.

As you will have read on this blog the Uniting Church as launched it's Rural Appeal. any support you can give will be gratefully received. It will provide food vouchers for families and also help to pay some of the Humphries expenses as they visit people.

Julie