GENEROSITY and grit have been the soundtrack to Gary Richards' life on the land and will deliver family plans to help sufferers of Motor Neurone Disease.
Come May 13, the Richards will offer six Droughtmaster weaners for auction with proceeds going to medical research into MND, a muscle wasting condition for which cures remain elusive.
But Mr Richards, who was diagnosed with MND in 2016 and answers to Ginny far more readily, nor wife Jenny want backslaps for their fundraising venture.
"Ginny and the rest of the family think it is not only fair but the right thing to do," Mrs Richards, Little Pine, Kilcoy, said.
"Whenever Ginny had to visit The Prince Charles Hospital (in Brisbane) for treatment the people there were so kind, patient and incredibly professional in everything they did. We could not have asked for better attention, nor care.
"People around here know of him and his family. He's a twin and when they were young he and Warren were known as fatty and skinny. One of them couldn't say skinny but rather it came out as Ginny and the name has stuck."
Mrs Richards said her stoic husband, who no longer speaks and cannot take food or fluids orally because of his deteriorating health, was still assisting where and when he could with farm chores and other duties, though it is a far cry from his early days.
After education at the Winya State School, Mt Kilcoy SS and Kilcoy State High he launched into work with Reg Jefferies at his Sandy Creek dairy farm and then, at 16, joined the team at Kilcoy Pastoral Company.
Thanks to living at home, he squirrelled some of his weekly pay of 12 pounds as he saved to buy a truck. He eventually owned nine, along with nine trailers and for 30 years has been collecting tallow from places such as Rockhampton, Toowoomba and Landsborough.
He also carts cattle and pigs to sales and uses others for campdrafts and scrap metal. Back in 1988 he was called on to carry palm trees from North Queensland to the Expo site in Brisbane.
Away from trucks and dozers, Ginny had a hankering to own land and once bought the 1600 acres at Monsildale with two of his brothers, Des and Warren.
More recently he and his wife acquired Little Pines, a 400 acre slice of the 13,000 area Pineview, and have since added 200 acres from a neighbouring block as well as grazing land at Spring Creek and additional holdings at Dryden Gully near Linville and Colinton.
Besides aiding research into MND, buyers able to secure one of the Richards' offerings at Woodford will grab a piece of rural history marked by a steely determination. And that's just how Ginny would like it...
