St George landholder's cattle donation adds $60,000 to LifeFlight

"Last year, near Moonie, there was a chopper in the middle of the bitumen airlifting a girl that had been injured in a horse-riding accident," he said. "I've got boys and country in the bush and am very aware of how needed the service is."

Thanks to Mr McKechnie's generosity and that of the purchasers at the Roma cattle sale on Tuesday morning, nearly $60,000 was raised for the cause.

The McKechnies run cattle at Longreach and Adavale as well as at St George and found the 10 four-tooth bullocks were leftovers that didn't fit the specifications of what they wanted to sell but as well grown out beasts, would fit the needs of the LifeFlight Foundation.

Thanks to the efforts of Ray White Rural Roma's Jack Clanchy and AJ Riley, the cattle were auctioned twice, with the original purchasers donating them back for resale.

It meant that the donation doubled in value, to $59,400.

LifeFlight Maranoa Regional Advisory Committee chairwoman Kate Scott said that to see the community stepping up in such a generous way, supporting the service that supports them and their families in times of need, was incredible.

"We are absolutely thrilled with this donation towards phase one of the project to build a new state-of-the-art LifeFlight Roma base," she said.

"To have raised $59,400 was an unbelievable effort and we are so grateful to everyone who made this possible - from the donors of the steers, to the businesses who bought one and then donated them back for re-sale, and of course to the three meat processors who bought them."

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The initial buyers included Ray White Rural Roma, Santos, Roma Transport, Curley Transport, Henry Transport, Fraser's Livestock Transport, Cavanaugh Transport, Hornick's Transport, Ironpot, and Ray White Australia, totalling $29,600.

The Droughtmaster cross steers, averaging 638kg, were then sold to Stanbroke, Teys and JBS.

The new base, which will be a dedicated rotary-wing hangar, fully equipped for the needs of current and future aircraft utilised by LifeFlight, received another shot in the arm last October with the announcement of a $1,072,137 Building Better Regions Fund grant from the federal government.

It will accommodate the $20m AW139 aircraft and provide adequate space within the hangar for crews to conduct on-site administration, training, engineering and maintenance activities.

Ms Scott said it would allow for optimised fleet movement and, most importantly, enable the crew to depart as smoothly and quickly as possible on their lifesaving missions.

It will also contain a walk-in interactive display area for tourism purposes.

A development application for stage one of the new base has been submitted and building is expected to start within the next eight weeks.

LifeFlight has made an application to the Building Better Regions Fund for further funding for stage two, the accommodation base.

A spokeswoman said it could cost upwards of $500,000 to build but that could vary, given the fluid state of the construction industry at present.

She said the base build appeal was still very much open and taking donations.

The organisation is also lending its support to the campaign to build a helicopter landing pad at the Roma Hospital.

LifeFlight's general manager operations rotary wing, Brian Guthrie said it was a community initiative, which LifeFlight welcomed and endorsed.

"Any project or infrastructure that assists LifeFlight's highly skilled aeromedical crews to continue to provide a world-class service to the people of this region, is welcome," he said. "A helicopter landing pad at the Roma Hospital is an initiative that would complement the plan for the new LifeFlight Roma base."

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