The next morning they turned around, loaded a pallet of dog food onto the back of a ute and delivered one bag each, along with some chocolate, to every mail box along Maybole Road near the town of Ben Lomond.

This particular area of the Northern Tablelands has been hit hard by the latest dry spell which Mr Causley became aware of after he looked after his brother-in-law’s property earlier this year.

“The close-knit community was in the grip of drought when I travelled up there in January to be a caretaker of my brother-in-law’s property, in particularly his neighbour who breeds cows and was running out of feed,” he said.

“After I left I could not stop thinking about their plight but I knew I had to consider carefully what kind of assistance I offered as farmers are very independent types who don’t like handouts.”

So Mr Causley had a number of discussions with his brother-in-law to try to figure out what he could do.

His approach was very considered and involved sourcing the right kind of feed and listening to what the farmers needed.

“I initially sourced some feed from a Whittingham farmer, Ray Burgmann and took it back up there to make sure it was suitable for the neighbour’s cattle.  I was also aware that many farmers were struggling to buy feed for their working dogs.  

I can recall someone feeding their dogs vegemite sandwiches,” he said.

“I also remembered that some of the farmers said they ate chocolate to stay awake.”

Considering all these factors Mr Causley purchased a pallet of dog food from a produce store in Glen Innes, sourced a donation of chocolate from the Singleton Heights Foodworks store and 252 bales of hay.

The only problem was getting the hay from Singleton to Ben Lomond but this was soon solved thanks to Mr Lamb.

“Malcolm came to me and asked to use one of my trucks and although he had a license he did not have a log book to travel that distance so I didn’t hesitate to offer my assistance and drive the truck,” he said.

“It was a wonderful weekend.  When we finally delivered the hay after a few mechanical dramas the farmer was so grateful. We arrived late in the evening and were greeted by a team to unload it and offered a beer.”

Mr Lamb spent the next day making some emergency repairs to his truck and received a helping hand from the locals while Mr Causley delivered the remaining items.

“I simply left one bag of dog food and some chocolate at the mailbox of residents along a 15km stretch Maybole road with a note,” he said.

The note read: “To the primary producers of Maybole Road Ben Lomond,  please accept this token of appreciation for your contribution to food and fibre production for our nation, with compliments from the people of Singleton.”

Mr Causley is monitoring the situation to see what further assistance he can provide.