Drought assistance on the road

Providing information for landholders in Bourke – Jennifer Jeffrey form the Rural Financial Counselling Service, Dee Gaff of Drought Support Scheme, NSW Health, Grace Murray of DPI, Victoria Blinkhorn (Rural Assistance Authority), Chris Duncan from DPI and Meg Carmichael (RAA) Photo TWH

The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and Rural Assistance Authority (RAA) were on the road and in the park in Bourke last week, bringing front line drought assistance to NSW farmers.

Grace Murray from DPI said farmers juggling the stresses of drought didn’t always have time to access assistance measures online or put their mind to completing applications.

The Bourke visit was part of a state tour by DPI staff, the RAA and Rural Resilience teams to help farmers with questions about assistance, help with applications on the spot and to talk individually with landholders about what specific support they might need.

The tour has been on the road for 15 weeks and has assisted almost 1,000 farmers across the state so far.

Read more in the printed edition of the Western Herald.