In the grips of a drought, Gatton farmer, Shirley Schultz, was forced to sell off one-third of her cattle back in 2019.
Desperately waiting for the rain at her property, the 84-year-old widow hand-fed her cattle a mixture of waste vegetables and hay twice a day to get through the toughest of times.
Fast-forward to 2022 and Army soldier Trooper, Rylan Green, from 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment (Queensland Mounted Infantry) said he will long remember the devastation when his troop arrived to fix Mrs Schultz’s fences, following some of the worst flooding in memory.
The fence surrounding her 50-acre property was swept away, forcing Mrs Schultz to keep her 30 head of cattle in a small enclosure until help arrived.
“I don’t think there were many options for her, so it’s lucky we were there to crack in and help,” Trooper Green said.
Trooper Green and the rest of his squadron repaired and reinstalled hundreds of metres of fencing for Mrs Schultz.
While she provided the supplies, Trooper Green and 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment’s soldiers provided the labour, completing a three-day job in a day and a half.
Soldiers gathered supplies, such as star pickets and wire, and installed a three-tier fence topped with barbed wire.
The clean-up continued for Mrs Schultz until her cattle were safe.
Trooper Green said he felt a sense of accomplishment when the job was finished.
“Seeing the end product and the hard work that the team put in was a big achievement for the troop and myself,” he said.
Defence support to Queensland and NSW governments is being delivered under Operation Flood Assist 2022.
