ABC Radio’s Drought Appeal to raise money for farmers in partnership with Red Cross launched last Friday morning. 

By the time Richard Glover’s Thank God It’s Friday segment was finishing up at 6pm, in front of a live audience, the tally was nearly $700,000.

By close of business yesterday (Monday) ABC Radio in NSW alone had raised more than $1.24 million for NSW farmers.

The ABC in Victoria will start raising funds for their state’s farmers from tomorrow.

The charities began receiving donations from ABC audiences when the appeal kicked off early on Friday morning, 10 August.   

ABC Radio Sydney, ABC Radio Canberra, regional ABC stations together with ABC NEWS ran special drought-related programming across the day crossing to ABC journalists in every part of the state.

Director of ABC Regional & Local, Michael Mason, said the tally showed how generous Australians were in times of need. 

“We launched the appeal in direct response to listeners’ requests to help the farmers,” Mr Mason said. “We were hoping to raise at least half a million dollars on the day of the appeal, but the level of support shown by our listeners has been overwhelming and I’d like to thank them for the enormous generosity.”

Judy Slatyer, CEO, Australian Red Cross, said: “I’d like to extend an enormous thank you to everyone at the ABC, for the hugely successful ABC Red Cross Appeal over the past three days, promoted across all channels, raising more than $1.2 million to support Australian farmers as they cope with this terrible drought. Many donors have told us moving stories, reinforcing the strong connection between Australians living in urban areas and farmers working on the land.”

The appeal will remain open until the end of August.  Donations can be made by calling 1800 RED CROSS or through abc.net.au/drought.