Enngonia residents assured on food supplies
Police, the Rural Fire Service, and community organisations have criticised well-meaning charities seeking to get around public health orders to deliver goods to residents in the Bourke Shire.
A convoy of vans from the Sydney charity – Hawkesbury Helping Hands was turned away by police on Saturday when they breached the health orders in an attempt to deliver food to people in Enngonia and Alice Edwards Village.
Some people in the villages were critical of the hampers that were donated, saying they were left near front gates in the rain and dogs had eaten some of the meat packs contained in the hampers.
On social media, a GoFundMe page was set up by the niece of one Enngonia resident who was concerned at the amount of food being delivered to her relatives.
Ebony Eulo is based in Maitland and said she had been told there was a delay in getting medical supplies for her Uncle’s diabetes and the food that was delivered was not enough to sustain them.
Resident Peter Shillingsworth said he was isolating in a household of seven, with two people COVID positive. He said he had two teenage boys and the food hampers that were delivered at the weekend were not enough to feed his family.
He said he was concerned that the Hawkesbury Helping Hands group had been turned away and claimed there were people going without food in the village.
But Detective Inspector Jeff Little from Central North Police District said well-meaning charities were not exempt from the public health orders, especially with COVID case numbers rising rapidly in Bourke and Enngonia and one local person dying from the virus in Dubbo on Sunday night.
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