2026 VIC Local Hero - Linda Widdup

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Back in 2019, there was some really

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awful stuff going on in New South Wales.

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Donny Doo was in a terrible drought. And

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when you see what the the farmers are

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going through at that time when all is

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lost, they’ve lost cattle, they’ve lost

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everything, it was heartbreaking. And I

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thought to myself, I can’t sit here and

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watch this. You know, my dad sort of

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said, well, what are you going to do?

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And I said, “Well, maybe we put the call

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out for um you know, some volunteers,

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some hay, uh whatever we could get our

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hands on and get it up there to these

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guys.” And a lot of people jumped on

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even with 20 small square bales, a

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truckload of rounds, all that. It all

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made a difference.

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Aussie Hay Runners is there to help

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farmers in time of despair. When there’s

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drought, fire, flood, we’re there to

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help. I put all the runs together. I

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then implement a bit of a plan with all

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the the volunteers of Aussie Hay Runners

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and I then get the boys to pick up the

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hay. I give them their farm drops and

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get it there as quick as we can.

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When Aussie Hay Runners started in 2019,

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there was probably around 20 people. We

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just did our best to to help out where

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we could. We started out with four

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trucks and now we have 74. We’ve covered

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over 6 million km and helped over 5,000

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farmers. We’ve had some absolute

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wonderful people um donate hay, donate

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their time, donate money, and that is

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what’s kept us going. The highlights and

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the rewards of doing what we do is when

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you see someone that has lost absolutely

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everything and you take a load of hay

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down there and they just can’t believe

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that someone would go out of their way

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and take the time of their day to come

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and help them. That load of hay, good

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quality hay coming up their driveway is

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an absolute lifeline. A little bit of

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kindness goes a long way.

Updated 9 January 2026

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2026 VIC Local Hero - Linda Widdup

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