A western Queensland expatriate living in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges, Inky Barwick (Starky to her Longreach friends) has reached out to her roots, hosting a black tie fund-raiser and raising $25,083 for the Western Queensland Drought Appeal.
Inky said the idea came to her after watching an ABC Landline show on the extent of the drought. “I spent the whole show in tears. I wanted to and had to do something,” she said.
“Something” was a night out with live music, which included 27 auction pieces made up from local businesses and personal entities all willing to donate.
“The support was outstanding – people were ringing me wanting to donate when they heard what the cause was for,” Inky said.
She and husband Ben donated all the meat and prawns for the night to help keep costs down and other items included a bottle of Penfold’s Grange that sold for $2000.
A highlight was a speech by Longreach friend Penny Button on how people are coping in the crisis.
