A social media campaign encouraging consumers to do their Christmas shopping with rural businesses is gathering steam in Queensland.
While the recently lauded Buy from the Bush campaign is being spearheaded by Grace Brennan of Warren, NSW, there is a Queensland version as well, being run by Darling Downs cattle producer and business owner Kerri Brennan, not related to her NSW counterpart.
Ms Brennan started up the Buy From The Bush Qld Facebook page about a year ago, as a way of highlighting rural businesses, particularly those being run by farmers as a side hustle.
Ms Brennan and her husband have a cattle property located 70km south of Toowoomba, with Ms Brennan also running Little Miracles Maternity Wear in Toowoomba as a source of off-farm income.
"I started the business two years ago when the dry first hit us," she said.
"A lot of rural women have to do that now...they're working in town or working at night, doing their craft and selling it."
Ms Brennan said the page was also a way to support other rural businesses.
"I just do this in the middle of the night or very early in the morning," she said.
"There's no commercial side of this page for me."
Ms Brennan said it was great to see the buy from the bush message start to catch on.
"There's a lot of people in the city who would like to help and are looking for ways they can do that," she said.
"It's great that there are different groups pushing the same message.
"There's no them and us, we're all after the same thing."
Ms Brennan said she would love to see anyone who liked the Facebook page share their own favourite bush businesses.
"We've shared businesses from Winton, Charleville, Stanthorpe, Warwick... we're always looking for more businesses worth supporting," she said.
Sally-Anne Dellit from The Shop, Dalby is among those embracing the opportunity to feature some of her products on the Buy from the Bush Qld Facebook page.
'It's a great idea to show people from the bigger cities what kind of products you can buy from smaller regional towns," she said.
"It also encourages local residents who might normally be looking at other online suppliers, to think about what is actually available to buy right here in the Western Downs."
Also getting behind the push to buy in rural communities is Brisbane creative professional Kristin Bonner, who has organised a Christmas shopping event in Dalby.
The Merry Muster, to be held on December 6, will see a bus load of shoppers come out from Brisbane for a day of shopping on the Western Downs, hitting up the Urban Paddock Cafe for morning tea and a speciality market event in Dalby, before heading to Bell for more markets and a three course lunch at Pips'N'Cherries, wrapping up with shopping in Dalby's main street.
Ms Bonner said she initially came up with the idea to simply get together a group of a few friends to do their Christmas shopping to help do their bit for a drought-affected community.
"Then I thought I could probably get a mini-bus together," she said.
"I put a post on social media about who wanted to come with me and it literally went crazy within two hours."
When the busload of more than 50 shoppers comes to inject money into the economy, they will also bring a cargo-hold packed with 50 Christmas hampers for local farming families, after teaming up with Foodbank.
Ms Bonner, who originally comes from country Victoria, said the initiative was an easy way to help, as it simply meant shoppers would spend the dollars they had planned to spend in the city in a community which could use the boost.
"I want to make it a yearly thing," she said.
Western Downs mayor Paul McVeigh is supportive of the schemes, encouraging businesses in his local area to join the 'buy from the bush' campaign.
"Our retail sector is really feeling the flow-on effects of the drought at the moment as everyone has tightened their belts, so this is another way we can encourage spending in our region," he said.