LIVING in the state's far west has never been easy - distance and the weather pose constant challenges - but when Windorah residents heard they were in danger of losing their post office, it was the last straw.
"It would be like the school closing, another service gone.
And when it's gone, it doesn't come back," said Helen Kidd, the initiator of Windorah's entry in the Beef Brigade competition.
When the post office operators retired, Windorah was looking at a mailbag service delivered from Longreach, 315km away.
Helen volunteers at the local Visitor Information Centre and was excited about the MLA Beef Brigade competition as soon as the email landed in her inbox at the centre.
"We're in the heart of the channel country - this is the best beef producing country in Australia," she said. "Beef is our main industry. The ringers spend their money locally, truck owners get business to pay their rego - the money goes down through everything."
These days though, people are spending more time pulling cows out of boggy dams, and feeding poddy calves. It has been five years since Helen and husband James have seen a flood across their channels at Ourdel.
"We've been losing the battle with our cattle, but keeping our post office going is something we feel good about," said Helen.
Having it stay open provided services on top of delivering mail for local people, chief among them banking. Older people picked up their pensions there and others paid phone and electricity bills.
The Windorah Development Board identified an old, disused cafe as a potential new post office building and set about restoring it.
"We've concentrated on the inside - cleaning, painting, sanding - so many people helped out," Helen said. "Now we need to make it look welcoming on the outside."
The $10 000 first prize from the Beef Brigade would mean they could install a disabled ramp and paint and landscape the exterior.
"Raising $10 000 in a drought - it would be a pretty hard ask for us at the moment. We were so excited to be a finalist and we'd love to have the money to finish this essential service off."
