| 63 RURAL SERVICES » Fryer Ag Puketapu Bridge washout devestates Matt Fryer put a call out on Facebook looking for help getting his gear out of the yard for repair and almost 40 people with six trucks answered. Kelly Deeks A heartbreaking sight awaited agricultural contractor Matt Fryer at his workshop after Cyclone Gabrielle swept away the Puketapu Bridge right behind his yard and Tutaekuri River breached its banks and surged straight through his shed with all his gear inside. “The water was about three metres high and I couldn’t get in there for a couple of days,” he says. “I started trying to get the gear out of the shed but it was pretty hard work and heartbreaking - everything was damaged. Five years ago I started Fryer Ag from zero as a young guy and was just about to pay a few things off, so to walk in there and see that was devastating.” As Matt began the arduous process of cleaning and drying his gear ready for transportation for repair, he had to stay with his gear day and night for fear of looting and other criminal behaviour that was happening in his area. As soon as he had his first tractor back from repair, his mental health was starting to suffer and he knew he needed to keep busy. He put a call out on Facebook looking for help getting his gear out of the yard for repair and almost 40 people with six trucks answered. “I had an army of people turn up to help which was quite a lot to process. But that’s what inspired me to go out and help where I could.” Matt took his tractor and headed up to Patoka where he spent the next two days helping people evacuate across the raging Tutaekuri and Mangatutu Rivers, and to bringing fencing supplies and stock feed across for farmers on the other side. Then it was time to start getting stock off of flooded farms. Matt hooked a stock trailer to his tractor and ferried stock across the river from Patoka to be met with stock trucks on the other side. Matt also ferried shearers and rousies across the river each morning and afternoon so they could get to the wool sheds and get in a full day’s shearing. Next to need help was the roading crews who couldn’t get access to the roads to fix them. Matt hooked up his tip trailer and got busy fixing holes in the roads to allow locals to access their homes, as well as reach the drop off points where helicopters were dropping supplies. “I did quite a bit of that, then ended up helping more people across the river because they were starting to get desperate and trying to do dangerous things. They needed someone to come in with some common sense and show some leadership. It was mainly farmers and rural people that really came to the aid of the area. They didn’t think about it, they just got stuck in.” Although a month of good growing weather has been lost, it was back to business as usual for Fryer Ag after a couple of weeks of recovery work. Matt usually does a bit of earthmoving in the off season and this service will see more demand for the next couple of years, and he thinks he’ll face “It was mainly farmers and rural people that really came to the aid of the area. They didn’t think about it, they just got stuck in.” Our flexible ‘S’ tynes, set on a patented angle combined with Taege 3-piece boots and hard wearing tungsten faced tips are a vastly different set up to other drills. TILTH GROWS SEEDS... THIS IS WHAT WE ARE ALL ABOUT AT TAEGE Superior Tilth for optimum germination since 1923. Trevor Goodeve 027 222 6050 sales@taege.com www.taege.com 100 YEARS ongoing issues with his machinery after being damaged. “Good or bad, we’ve just got to carry on.” Matt thinks he’s gained a bit of resilience and a bit of confidence in his five years as a business owner and these stand him in good stead to be there for his customers, and his community, whenever they need him.
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