theBEATS local hero, Majella
The BEATS local hero, Majella Stapleton, who lives in the heart of outback Queensland, started caring for orphaned possums some 25 years ago. On her three acre property, on the road to Longreach, 200kms from Cunnamulla, Majella is currently caring for this rare and endangered baby black joey kangaroo.
When the BEATS founder, Tommy Viljoen first met Majella back in 2020, he was overwhelmed by her generosity, kindness, and the hard work she was doing.
As well as this special little joey, Majella is also currently feeding and caring for four male red kangaroos (one four foot high!) and a female, six possums, a kookaburra with a broken wing, as well as a woolly buck wallaby and someone gave her some goats! Majella usually gets the roos, wallabies and possums when they would still be in the pouch if their mums had lived
Tommy said: “When I was pointed in Majella’s direction back in 2020, there wasn’t a skerrick of grass on her land and that’s still the case today around the house.” (The recent Queensland floods came up to the padocks, but not as far as the house).
This local hero eeks out her own old-age pension to buy fruit and veggies for the possums, mixed grains for all of them, roo milk and some lucerne hay to feed her rescued wild life menagerie.” (A cost of around $80 a week!)
“It’s just what country people do,” Majella said.
Tommy said Majella was ‘matter of fact’. She said: “There’s a lady in town who cares for the birds that are hit on the roads.” Adding: “There’s Heather, with a fair-sized paddock, 90kms east of here who looks after the ‘roos’ that have escaped either the wild dogs or the shooters, or got caught at the dog and dingo fences.”
Tommy is heading back to see Majella this July. And now the Queensland floods have taken the place of the drought, he wants to see what else and what other local heroes there are that we can help.
Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status
Tommy is determined that Majella and Australia’s local heroes won’t have to fund all the caring work they do alone. He was, and remains, certain that us urban folk can also help local heroes like Majella. And that’s why the germ for the BEATS was founded.
Tommy started to help Majella from his own pocket, and now Tommy, through setting up the BEATS charity and gathering together a bunch of keen BEATS volunteers, is determined to build that support.
We have secured Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status from the ATO, which means that, as an environmental charity, a donor gets tax relief on every dollar they/you can contribute over $2.
