In the early hours of this morning, Paul Kemp was on his farm, pulling three cows out of a half-dry dam. His 320 acre property in Murgon, 245km north-west of Brisbane, has started to feel the effects of drought, having only received 7mls of rain this year so far.

But Murgon and the South Burnett region haven’t been declared in drought. Paul knows he’s much better off than farmers in other parts of Queensland. And that’s why he’s been moved to do something to help.

A roadtrain packed with hay bales and stock food donations is being sent from Murdon District Baptist Church to Longreach this weekend, to help drought-stricken farmers.

“We had a contractor in a month ago cleaning out our own dams on the farm. He told us he’d been working on a property out near Winton [in central western Queensland]. The farmer there couldn’t sell his cattle, they were too poor to go to sale. He had to shoot the cattle. And then he shot himself.”

“This guy told me that story and I thought, you know, I think it’s bad where we are, but we gotta get out there. We just have to get beside these people and love them.”

With his church, Murgon District Baptist Church, a small group of about 45 Christians, Paul is spearheading a response he’s dubbed ‘Eat Dirt Drought’. It started out as a call for donations of funds to load a truck with hay bales and stock food, and send it up to Longreach and its surrounding area, one of the regions worst hit by the Queensland drought. But the response from the community has been so big he’s had to make other arrangements.

“On Friday morning, we’ll have a roadtrain chock full of hay and stock food leaving Murgon and heading north. I don’t know how many fruit cakes and Anzac biscuits we’ve got, but there are huge amounts that have come in too, all making the trip.”

The roadtrain and driver, donated by St George Freightlines, will be loaded with over 600 hay bales, three tonnes of lick blocks, dog food and chook food.

This generosity is from a community who last year suffered devastating floods, and extreme dry weather before that. Some farmers have planted crops three seasons in a row without return.

“It’s pretty hard here too,” says Paul. “But the number of people calling up and saying they want to help is amazing.”

The roadtrain is heading to Longreach, where the Longreach Uniting Church is expecting its arrival. Their minister, Jenny Coombes, has been at her post for less than two weeks, having come herself from Murgon.

Jenny’s only just unpacking her furniture, but has been working with Murgon Baptist on the logistics of the outreach for a few weeks. Now that she’s in Longreach, she can see the obvious need.

“Driving up here, you go through patches that have had recent rain, but much more that’s just bare. The stock aren’t looking good at all,” she says.

Longreach Uniting Church is in the township, but Jenny says the church is made up of people with strong connections to the land. “Many of them have retired in town, but have family, children, working on their properties and stations. They’ve grown up on the land, and they know the struggles of drought.”

Jenny too knows the effects drought can have on a community. “People come into church in a fairly depressed state, not knowing how they’re going to manage long term. There’s a build up over time, it’s stress.

“Being there for people is just a big thing at these times. You’ve got to be prepared to reach out to them. People out here often equate asking for help with failure. They’re very good at hiding their real situation. You’ve got to break through that barrier to be able to really help.”

Breaking through those barriers is hard in rural areas, where the distances between stations are great and services like counselling are hard to access. But Jenny says “walking beside people” is what she’s seeking to do. And the roadtrain is one way to help.

When the roadtrain arrives on Saturday after its long journey, it will head to a property 100km out of Longreach, on the way to Winton. Anne Brown, a local Longreach resident from birth, and a member of the Longreach Uniting Church, was asked to help coordinate where the supplies from Murgon would go, and who it would help.

Anne and her husband Andy are now retired in town, but spent 42 years on a 25,000 acre property, “Cronulla”, outside Longreach. Three of their sons now work the land, parched though it is.

But she says their property is better off than most. It’s a phrase that Eternity has heard from everyone we’ve spoken to: there always seems to be someone worse off. In Longreach, rain has been patchy. Some farmers may have had some recent rain relief, while their neighbours get nothing.

“Some haven’t had rain in two years, or nothing that has any consequence for the land,” says Anne. “But everyone tries to help each other. In country like this, you know where the rain’s fallen, and who will still be waiting.”

Anne says 12 families will receive most of the contents off the roadtrain this weekend. “I was aware of one area that was particularly dry, that badly needed help. We thought it better to consolidate in that area; it’s easier for the farmers who don’t have to travel far to get their supplies.”

It’s impossible to choose who is most deserving of assistance in an area of such widespread drought. Compared to the need, the roadtrain is still just a drop in the ocean. But for at least 12 families this weekend, it’s welcome relief.

Back in Murgon, Paul is busy planning another roadtrain to go to another part of Queensland in need. He’s still working out where best to send assistance, but until he does, he says there’s another way to help: pray for rain.

That’s a call echoed by Jenny and Anne in Longreach too.

“Pray for rain. A good, soaking rain,” says Anne.

“God’s bigger than we could ever be,” says Paul. “We need to pray for rain, and that people don’t feel alone. They’ve got an almighty God.”