Motorists Stranded By Floods Set Up Food Kitchens For Fellow Travelers

March 1, 2022

Stranded motorists in Australia are sharing resources and feeding one another while stuck on the M1 Pacific Motorway, the main motorway between Sydney and Brisbane.

Photos: Conal Hanna / The Guardian

The M1 is closed down in both directions due to flooding, leaving thousands of vehicles stranded.

When local farm workers walked down the hillside to bring boxes of water and food to the people stranded on the highway, they were surprised to find everyone so well fed.

"This was a thriving community of shared resources and resourcefulness, where truck drivers dished out food that had been destined for supermarkets to waylaid holidaymakers who cooked it on camping stoves," the Guardian reported.

Rahjah McNae was driving a truck full of raw chicken bound for Aldi.

"Thankfully the four-wheel drive guys had the cooking equipment, they've been fabulous cooking for everyone. Everyone's getting a hot breakfast, everyone got supper last night," McNae said.

"People were bringing up sausages and whatever they could," another motorist said. "But they weren't bringing it up for themselves, they were bringing it up for everybody. It's been a real coming together, a team effort."

"Someone – a local farmer I think – brought down a box of bananas and a box of passionfruit and then someone who was also stuck had like a tray of prawns in an esky. So we all got one prawn, a banana and a passionfruit," another said.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet stressed the unprecedented nature of the storm, describing it as a "one in 1000-year" event, while Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the state received 80 percent of its annual rainfall within three days.