Julian Keith
BIG or small, everything counts when it comes to the devastating bushfires ravaging communities in rural and regional Australia . . . and now Stadium Australia staff are doing what they can to help those in need.
Separate to donating money, food and clothing to various charity funds, the VenuesLive kitchen staff led by Sous Chef Martin Dulke decided to jump in the kitchen and do what they do best: Bake.
“We felt a little helpless coming back to work this week and decided to jump in the kitchen and make something for the volunteers doing an amazing job fighting the fires on the South Coast and Southern Highlands,” said Chef Martin.
“With the help of some donated product from our partners at Olsson’s Salt and Pepe Saya Butter, we’ve managed to bake more than 1100 salted chocolate brownies as a nice treat for the people working so hard to combat the effects of these horrible fires.”
This weekend, Martin and his partner Michelle will head down to the Southern Highlands to take part in an animal rescue effort – scouring the bush for wildlife impacted by the fires.
Martin will be able to hand-deliver the brownies as a small token of thanks for the efforts of volunteers in the area.
“We’ve all donated money to relief funds but we thought this would be a great way to take what we know and use it as a way to show we care about the people fighting these fires day in, day out,” said Chef Martin.
As well as the brownies, Martin will be taking more than 5000 easily-heated pork buns kindly donated by Lotus & Ming, one of the Stadium’s suppliers.
All-in-all there is a veritable feast on its way down to the Southern Highlands and South Coast this weekend.
Stadium Australia will be hosting a benefit concert on Sunday 16 February called “Fire Fight Australia” and coordinated by concert promoter TEG Dainty and TEG Live. Learn more here.
Tribal Sports Group have also confirmed an exhibition football match called “Football For Fires” to be played at the Stadium on Saturday 23 May and is expected to feature some of the world’s highest profile past and present players. Learn more here.
*VenuesLive operates Stadium Australia and Bankwest Stadium on behalf of Venues NSW and the NSW Government. Staff are actively participating in programs aimed at supporting Australian bushfire relief funds.
