Truckie part of Esperance hay run a week after organising 14 trucks to drop hay after Wooroloo fires

When Wandering truckie Pete Warburton was driving home from a job the same night Wooroloo was ablaze, a chat with a mate planted a seed in his brain. They spoke about the possibility of dropping hay to the victims, many of whom had to evacuate horses and other animals in the blaze, which burnt for days and destroyed 86 properties. That conversation was on Monday night. By Friday, he — with the help of Farmers Across Borders and the Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of WA — had 14 trucks and 620 bales of hay donated and at the ready. It was a whirlwind week for Mr Warburton, who has been a familiar face behind the wheel on several Farmers Across Borders hay runs over the past two years. “With 75 phone calls a day, we made it happen,” he said. “I reckon I aged five years in those four days. “But it was just unreal the donations and help we had along the way in those four days to get 14 trucks — some of them carrying 66 bales and some of them 30 rolls — loaded, donated and on our way on the Sunday.” Drivers from Dunn Rock, Bridgetown and Williams, to Narrogin, Wagin, Wandering, Pingelly, Northam and Brookton in the north, all donated their trucks and time. Mr Warburton said the generosity did not stop there. Local fuel stations, with the LTRA and local cafes serving the drivers breakfast, morning tea and lunch free of charge to thank them for their efforts. Since jumping on their New South Wales run to Cobar in 2019, Mr Warburton has travelled to a number of Goldfields and Gascoyne stations dropping hay to those struggling. He said the mates he had made along the way and the people they had been able to help made it a rewarding and “unreal” experience. “Where we went to Cobar, they had cut their cattle by 80 per cent and their sheep numbers by 50 per cent,” he said. “They were over the moon to see us.