It was not something she expected to be doing while
planning to tie the knot with her long-term partner Ross, 30, who she wed at
her family’s property in Blackall in Queensland’s
west.
Ingrid, 26, returned home a month before her
wedding on September 5, where she made the decision with her mother Roslyn and
her two sisters to de-stock their farm entirely.
Ingrid’s family originally had 10,000 sheep that
had been sold months ago due to the drought, before they made the final call to
sell off their remaining 400 head of cattle.
“My dad passed away nearly six years ago in an
accident on the property, and mum has been running the property by herself,”
Ingrid told News Corp Australia.
“It was an emotional time and we are in the middle
of a raging drought, so there were many different emotions on the day and
leading up to it as well.
“We discussed our options to keep feeding our
cattle and we decided we couldn’t financially afford to keep going. Seeing all
the stock leave the place and not knowing when you’re going to get stock back
again was very hard.”
Her family’s battle with drought was witnessed by
their wedding photographer, Edwina Robertson, who was so moved by their
strength, that she started a Facebook campaign to help those in rural Australia
in need.
Robertson posted photos on Facebook that she took
from Ingrid and Ross’s wedding day, and said she would donate $3 for every time
her post was shared to the Tie
Up the Black Dog Committee, a support group for those suffering depression
and mental health issues in rural areas.
Just 24 hours later, Robertson’s post was shared
4974 times, leading her to pledge $15,000 to the Committee, run by three women
who volunteer to help others with no overheads and no extra staff.
Her donation has inspired other Facebook users to
donate to the cause, after Robertson set up an Oz Crowd fundraising page for others to donate.
With a fundraising target of $50,000, it has raised
more than $17,000 so far and counting.
“I travelled
nine hours to get to Blackall for their wedding day and when I got there I had
never seen anything like it in my time as a wedding photographer in the Australia’s
Outback. I was dumbfounded by just how dry it is. I couldn’t believe it,”
Robertson told News Corp Australia.
Robertson said she wanted to make sure their
wedding day was captured as the “beautiful”, “joyous” day it was, but she also
wanted to show the reality of the drought.
“I wanted to work with the scenery and the
landscape, and use the harsh reality of the drought to create those images. The
picture of the bouquet lying among the bones ... that was the reality. That was
what was actually going on,” she said.
Despite the struggles her family face, Ingrid said
she wouldn’t have changed a thing. She helped make every decoration at their
wedding, and their bar was even made from an old door at her husband’s farm
where they now live in Condamine, north west
of Brisbane.
“It meant a lot to go home and get married there,”
she said.
“We were conscious of our finances and we wanted to
use as much local produce and local resources we could to help give back to the
community.
“We used old pallets, we made signs from old
timber, we used drums and tables that have been on our property ‘Koondoo’ in
Blackall for 80 years.
“We had some flowers sent from Toowoomba like the
King protea in my bouquet but we used local natives from friends and family
too.
“Although it
was a really hard time it was still a really nice, exciting time in our lives.”
Now working as a nurse, Ingrid said she was
“speechless” after seeing what Robertson did on Facebook, saying it will help
those she sees through her work.
“I’m just speechless for what Eddie has done, I
think her generosity has been incredible, it’s such a worthy cause and it will
really help people doing it tough,” she said.
“Mental health isn’t spoken about enough and as a
nurse I see it in the frontline.
“If we can keep people who are doing it tough, it’s
an amazing cause.
“She was
able to capture our wedding with so much joy and capture the hardship people
here are going through.
She’s done so much for the rural community, and
people are still talking about the day after seeing her photos.
“Every photo is natural and she’s brought so much
joy to the town.”
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