![Graham Kirkland, Warrawee, Deuchar, appreciates the help he recieved from the QMDC’s Dirty Gloves program. Picture: SARAH COULTON. Graham Kirkland, Warrawee, Deuchar, appreciates the help he recieved from the QMDC’s Dirty Gloves program. Picture: SARAH COULTON.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-agfeed/2047813.jpg/r0_0_1024_683_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
WHEN disaster strikes, there is a need to pull on your gloves and get your hands dirty to help those in need.
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Nine months on from the Australia Day 2013 floods, the Queensland Murray-Darling Committee received accolades for doing exactly that.
The organisation was recognised at the Queensland Regional Achievement and Community Awards in early November, where it received the Peabody Environment and Landcare Award for its Dirty Gloves Flood Recovery program.
The program recruited 115 volunteers to work on 123 properties and help more than 200 local farmers and community members in the six months following the floods, generated by Cyclone Oswald.
QMDC CEO Geoff Penton said the program attracted locals and backpackers from all over the world, who gave up weeks of time to help landholders recover.
“We basically wanted to assist landholders to clean up and get back into farming following the floods,” he said.
“We’ve done this style of flood recovery assistance for the previous two years and basically thought we would keep going.”
Graham Kirkland runs cattle and cropping on his 400-hectare property Warrawee at Deuchar, between Warwick and Allora.
Mr Kirkland’s family has been in the area since the 1920s and today he runs the farm with his wife Geraldine and his son Leigh.
They experienced the benefits of the Dirty Gloves program first-hand when four UK university graduates helped him with the clean-up for a few days in late March.
Mr Kirkland said they were able to achieve a lot on his property in the short time he was assisted by the volunteers.
“Cleaning up after a flood is a horrific job,” he said.
“In terms of fencing everything’s tangled and covered in silt and flood debris.
“The January flood was the most ferocious that I’ve ever witnessed in terms of soil and infrastructure damage.”
The Kirklands suffered major topsoil losses and lost five to six kilometres of fencing, which had only just been replaced after the 2011 floods. Their 100ha of summer crop, consisting of maize, sorghum, mungbeans and soya beans, was also severely damaged.
As well as the physical and financial toll a flood can take on a family, there is a hefty emotional strain.
Mr Kirkland said having energetic, cheerful people coming to help boosted spirits greatly.
“Their cheerful attitude was a great benefit to you and even sharing a meal with them and hearing a bit of their background was great to take your mind off the rather depressing sight that we had to deal with,” he said.
After the floods they set a goal of getting enough ground ready to plant a winter crop and keep up a cash flow.
They met their target and have just commenced harvest.
There is still much to be done in terms of fencing and soil reformation but the Kirklands are on the road to recovery.
Mr Kirkland said it was good to see the Dirty Gloves program and QMDC recognised for its hard work.
“It was good to see the recognition because they certainly were a great help to many people that were flood affected,” he said.
“With the management and organisation of volunteers there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that you don’t see and obviously that needs recognition too.
“Various properties in this vicinity also had help from Dirty Gloves and anyone I spoke to had great appreciation for their help.”
Mr Penton said although some producers were back on their feet, others were still battling from pillar to post.
“It’s a really mixed bag. Some people are well and truly back into the swing of farming and everything is repaired and back to normal,” he said
“Others have bounced from flood to drought very quickly – not everything is repaired and they are worried about feed and getting ground cover back before the next flood.
“I think one of the hardest parts is if they have lost a year’s crop or lost stock, and repairs cost so much, it’s hard for the bank balance to bounce back.”
Mr Penton said QMDC was keen to see “volunteerism” and on-farm labour become a part of their normal business.
“It has become apparent to us that a lack of access to labour is a limitation to achieving conservation outcomes, not just when the floods hit but on an ongoing basis,” he said.
“I think the key message for us is in order to have healthy land you need to have healthy people.
“We need to help people cope with these sorts of disasters in order for them to be able to manage their land, manage their creeks and improve water quality.
“You need to work with people to achieve those Landcare elements.”