Although it is a three-day drive from Brisbane to Townsville, the 1,500-km distance has not stopped a truckload of community donations from arriving in the north Queensland city, a week after its worst-ever flooding.
Brisbane delicatessen owner Wendy Cox started spruiking for donations of food, clothing and household goods on social media a week ago.
She was so overwhelmed with the volume of donations she had to remove the tables and chairs from her deli and temporarily close down the business.
"The donations came in thick and fast — it was just amazing," she told ABC Radio Brisbane.
"I had people reversing their big four-wheel drives up to the shop and unloading boot-loads of wonderful items!"
Ms Cox said she was motivated to help as she had good friends that she grew up with New Zealand, who now called Townsville home.
15 pallets of goods head north
Truck driver Allan Hughes heard of the campaign and offered to drive the goods to Townsville.
Seated next to him in the truck's cabin was a huge toy bear destined for a hospital patient whose teddy bear was lost in the floods.
"In Australia when someone gets down a bit there is always someone there to give them a help up, that is what I like about this country," Mr Hughes said.
"People were still bringing stuff in as I was loading."
Fifteen pallets of clothes, cleaning vinegar, school supplies and household goods were delivered, including the two pallets of brand new gumboots — to keep residents safe from contaminated floodwaters during the clean up.
Brisbane resident Michelle Dougal, who worked for a logistics company, donated the gumboots after hearing Ms Cox's request on ABC Radio Brisbane.
"We were around in the 2011 Brisbane floods but were very lucky," she said.
"This is the least we could do for the people up north."
With a little help from friends
The goods were delivered to NQ Food Relief, a community organisation with established networks for distributing to those in need.
Warehouse Supervisor Toby Kelly said since the floods started, demand for their food hampers had tripled.
"Thursday and Friday was absolutely chaotic here, we have done 400 family hampers — about 5,000 kilos, and 34 pallets of dry food all in two days," Mr Kelly said.
Townsville-based volunteers who saw the campaign on social media assisted with the unloading of the truck.
Rosy Adidi, whose own home had been impacted by the flooding, brought her teenage son and baby daughter along to help unpack the donations.
She said she had been following Wendy's campaign on Facebook and when she heard they were looking for volunteers she wanted to assist.
"It is overwhelming," Ms Adidi said.
"I can't believe how many people would donate, there is so much, I feel like we are just unpacking and unpacking and unpacking.
"Thank you very much to all those around Australia that donated this, we are very grateful."
The donations from Brisbane will be distributed to the community through Northreach Baptist Church in Kirwan.
