Half of that amount came from each organisation and for the Campdraft Association at least it may be a sign of better times ahead, but association president, John Saunders, has not lost sight of recent difficulties despite a couple of kind years.

“We’ve had a few tough years where with the drought and wet weather we couldn’t get a go on,” John said.

“The last two years we’ve had two successful campdrafts, we’re lucky now that we got Gunnee feedlot on board, which has the cattle right on our doorstep, it makes it so much easier for our operation to work a lot cheaper. 

“We can make more money and give more to whoever we need to.

Volunteer co-ordinator for the Wetpac helicopter, Melinda Heck-rotte, said the donation was fantastic and meant the world to the service.

“Contributions from the comm-unity and groups like this are just so important,” Melinda said. 

“You’d be surprised about some of the smaller communities, they’re just so giving and the donations that come out of towns like Delungra, they’re just fantastic.”