06/03/2026
All It takes sometimes is a simple " g'day how you going " to make someone's day. Pretty much like the exceptional service here at The Holy Cow Butchers..Cough Cough... Bu****it.
A Picnic That Means More Than Just a Picnic
On Saturday afternoon, as the sun begins to soften over Bain Park in Wauchope, something simple but powerful will be happening.
But in reality, it’s something much bigger.
This “Picnic in the Park” community event is part of a national research project led by three universities, aimed at understanding how natural disasters affect small rural communities and how those communities can rebuild strength and resilience together.
And places like Wauchope know that story all too well.
Over the past decade, rural towns across Australia have faced more than their fair share of hardship, floods that swallow paddocks, fires that scar the hills, droughts that stretch patience and pockets thin. And sometimes, the weight of it all becomes too much for the very people who hold these communities together.
Behind every disaster statistic is a farmer, a small business owner, a family trying to keep going.
But the saddest part is Sometimes a mate who didn’t.
Just in the shop alone over the past few years it's nearly reached double figures from people's experiences about losing someone too soon too early and sometimes way too young.
That’s why events like this matter.
They remind us of something rural communities have always known instinctively: healing often begins with simply coming together.
At Bain Park this Saturday, the Wauchope Lions Club will be providing free food, while local musicians Charlie O’Derry and Sue Lee bring live music to the afternoon.
Children can enjoy face painting, neighbours will share stories, and for a few hours the focus shifts from hardship to connection.
Because resilience in country towns doesn’t come from policies or reports alone.
It comes from conversations on park benches.
From laughter between strangers who suddenly realise they know the same people.
From small business owners, farmers, volunteers, and families standing side by side.
Or talking to your neighbour over the fence down a boundary line and ripping your f"*king shirt on the barbed wire fence..
The researchers behind the project are studying ways to improve mental wellbeing, reduce distress, and help communities prepare for future disasters, while working with local leaders to build long term solutions tailored to the community itself.
But perhaps the most powerful part of the study won’t be written in any report.
It will be seen in moments like this:
A farmer who hasn’t spoken much lately sharing a joke over a sausage sandwich.
Kids laughing while music plays.
A town quietly reminding itself that no matter what storms come next floods, fires, or the pressures of everyday life no one has to face them alone.
Sometimes the strongest thing a small country community can do is talk and come together.