Berriwillock is renowned for their strong community spirit and generosity. Every year on the eve of Good Friday these traits are beaming from this small town, and it is directed towards a place over 300kms away. The Royal Children's Hospital, namely being their Good Friday Appeal. Every single year, rain, hail or shine, the locals gather for their charity auction. They open their hearts and their wallets and they give everything they can to support the appeal and the children that need it most. 

Prior to that Thursday night and for over the past 20 years, Max Nunn and his family are gathering what they can to fill pages and pages with items to be auctioned off. Hitting the pavement and the telephone to get as much as possible in the hope to break the past years total and ensure Berriwillock makes it's traditional impact on the Appeal. 

Max Nunn, Kate Nunn, Tiarnee Hall, Shaniah Nunn & Nakia Nunn head up the behind the scenes organisation of the auction, putting in many hours prior, during and post auction to ensure everything run smoothly.

The local community is hard at it too, baking cakes, making chocolate eclairs, putting together hampers, even offering their livestock dressed and packaged for the freezer.  The generosity starts long before the first item is auctioned and it continues till the early hours of the next morning. 

Once that auctioneers hammer raises, the locals give everything they can for the kids, the hampers raise hundreds, cakes raise the same, the price of lamb triples and the eclairs are reaching $1200 a dozen, the Pub is open and the Tennis Club are running the BBQ.  It's one of the biggest nights in the Mallee, not by the number, but by the size of the hearts.

 

By the time the dust settled and the lights went out on the 2024 Appeal, over $50,000 had been raised, bringing the total raised over the past 23 years to almost $580,000. Quite the achievement for a town of 180.

So if you're feeling generous and looking for something different, then come to Berriwillock on the Thursday night before Good Friday and Give That They May Grow.. 

https://www.theguardian.com.au/community/berriwillock-states-most-generous-town

https://www.buloketimes.com/news/berriwillock-prepares-for-hospital-appeal-auction

https://www.theguardian.com.au/community/berriwillock-ready-to-dig-deep-again

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/small-towns-give-big-to-good-friday-appeal/news-story/c46d724bc755d3623e05f72ca1a73502

https://www.theguardian.com.au/news/a-greatfridayappeal