Southlanders donate in different way to bush fire victims

Tuesday, 7 January 2020

Saddlery Warehouse Invercargill owner Stacey Green with some of the donated animal supplies that will be sent to owners of injured livestock in the Australian bush fires.

Southlanders are responding to the urgent needs of Australia's bush fire victims.

Joining the many Kiwis donating in different ways is business owner Stacey Green, of Saddlery Warehouse Invercargill. She has made her store a collection point for donated animal supplies, such as bandages, veterinary wraps, hay nets, horse covers, pet beds and cat and dog carry cages.

Some people have travelled to the store with goods or have bought items there for the collection. Others have bought products over the phone and asked for them to be added to the collection which begins its journey to Australia on Monday.

Goods have to be new to comply with customs regulations.

'We can empathise but we've got no idea how bad it is [in Australia] … it's just horrible,' she said.

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Green had a brother-in-law and sister-in-law caught up in the crisis while holidaying on the south coast of New South Wales. They were evacuated to a beach but had since managed to get home.

Riverton woman Dee Wainui was flying to Sydney on Friday and would take donated fabric items for injured animals.

Wainui said the Animal Rescue Collection Craft Guild had listed what was needed, including - joey pouches, bat wraps and hanging pouches.

Patterns to make them could were available on the internet.

Wainui said she had 12 to 15 people in Riverton and Invercargill making goods. She will find a collection point to donate them as soon as she arrived in Sydney.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, 21 New Zealand firefighters, including one from Southland, were to be deployed to New South Wales to support firefighting efforts. When they leave, the number of Kiwi firefighters sent to the bush fires since late October will total 179.

Southland firefighter Brodie Butcher, of Hedgehope, returned from the fires in December. He said surveying the burnt landscape was harrowing and hard to look at.

Photos and footage from the fires looked horrible, but it was not until Butcher saw it with his own eyes that he grasp the scale of the situation.