General News
16 January, 2026
Local IGA to support emergency services
Maryborough IGA is continuing their commitment to supporting the community through its current initiative for local emergency services and responders.
This week, Maryborough IGA has launched discounts for local emergency services and first responders.
In line with discounts to seniors and rewards members, savings are now extended to locals doing their bit as the state emerges from some of the worst fire conditions seen in years.
Maryborough IGA is also accepting donations for local CFA and SES, encouraging customers to contribute what they can to the organisations playing a major role in protecting the region.
After witnessing the tireless efforts of local brigades attending the Ravenswood South fire, Maryborough IGA’s Jefferson Hoober said the move was a way to honour and acknowledge their commitment to saving lives and property.
“We are always trying to help people. I just put my community hat on because it’s devastating seeing what has been lost. Our fruit and veg truck driver who comes here three days a week, he is actually from Harcourt, so he was right in the mix of it ... they didn’t lose their house but they lost their sheds,” he said.
While the Central Goldfields were spared in last week’s harrowing destruction, Mr Hoober feels there is still a ripple effect felt by neighbouring communities.
“A lot of us here are involved in community groups like the Lions Club ... and we have had a bit to do with the Harcourt Lions Club in the past few months with the Victorian Miniature Rail set up there, it is devastating what Harcourt has lost,” he said.
“There are Lions members in Harcourt who lost their houses, lost their equipment. The next best thing we can do here is look after our first responders and we are extending that to nurses and everyone in the medical team because everyone is important.
“So for us to jump on board, IGA or Lions Club, if we can help in any sort of way, it doesn’t matter.”
Mr Hoober said this aftermath just happens to fall on some difficult anniversaries of the Central Goldfield’s own tragic natural disasters.
“January 15 is the anniversary of the floods in Carisbrook from 2011. The bushfires in 1985, that was January 14 and 15. It’s actually the same. They are the two days these incidents happened anyway. We know how hard it is,” he said.
“We saw the bushfires here, we saw the floods, and it’s a way of us helping. We all go through these tough times and these disasters. When everyone gets in and gets involved where they can, we support the locals and support the community. If you don’t have a community, you don’t have a town.”
Customers are advised to declare if they are part of emergency services, first responders or as a nurse when they shop at IGA.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s their grandmother, their grandfather, their father, their children. Anyone can come in and say their family is part of the CFA or SES, and we will look after them,” Mr Hoober said.
“Anyone can come in and say they are part of the CFA or are a first responder, we are just extending that discount that we give to our seniors, to our first responders.”
