Kate Wade is also keeping the Trangie post office busy with her online business One More Thread,which imports handmade clothing and textiles from Mexico. She went from a couple of sales per week to a"life changing"60 in one weekend,almost selling out of stock.
The action is all thanks to a grassroots social media campaign urging city people to,as the hashtag goes,#buyfromthebush. Launched a little under a month ago by another central west local – Grace Brennan – the movement has already attracted about 90,000 followers on both Instagram and Facebook and promoted the wares of over 120 businesses.
Most importantly,it's prompted hundreds of purchases from retailers in drought-stricken towns from Barcaldine in central Queensland to Cobram in Victoria,sending in a much-needed cash and morale boost at a time when drought and now bushfires are leaving rural towns reeling.
Ms Brennan,a former Sydneysider who moved to Warren 10 years ago where she now runs an agriculture tech startup,came up with the idea after recently posting about a favourite local business on Facebook and urging her city friends to support it.
The enthusiastic response planted"a seed of a thought"that"we just needed a way of broadcasting what's out here to the masses"– and Instagram seemed like a good place to start.
With a few friends who volunteered,she began posting about products being sold by rural retailers on the'Buy From The Bush'page and letting followers know how they could purchase the goods. It didn't take long for the page and hashtag to take off.