A FULL day of income from the Mortlake Roadhouse will be donated to five south-west businesses to distribute to fire-affected residents.
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Roadhouse owner Dion Symons said he decided to give the cash from Tuesday’s trade to those affected by the St Patrick’s Day bushfires.
The total was $6135.50.
Mr Symons said he was originally aiming for around $4000. He said the idea came to him because he wanted to help, and many of his customers and workers were from the fire-affected areas.
“We have three people from Terang who work here,” he said.
“Mortlake is only 15 minutes from Terang, we all know people in the south-west who have been involved.
“Some of our customers who come in here who have lost their dairies.”
Mr Symons another reason he wanted to help was because on Sunday, when the Princes Highway was closed, and traffic was diverted through Mortlake, his daily takings were up.
“People who wouldn’t usually come through here did,” he said.
“I probably made money that wasn't rightfully mine.
“In essence I feel you shouldn't be a winner out a day like that, so I thought I would do that.”
Mr Symons said he only decided on Tuesday morning to do it.
“I wacked up a post on Facebook and it went nuts,” he said.
“It was shared everywhere. Lots of locals and truckies came in. People deliberately came out of there way to come here.”
People also signed a thank you wall in the roadhouse.
Mr Symons said he decided to go a bit “left of field” with how he would distribute the money.
“Being a small business myself, I’ve decided I will divide it by five, and I'll go to Campderdown Cobden , Terang, Hawkesdale and Timboon and I'll pick out a take-away place or pub," he said.
“I'll give them one fifth of the money. I understand they have done it tough too without power or customers, so then they can do something for their town. They can disperse it or give people who ahve been affected by the fires a free meal or supplies when they come in. So they are able to do something nice for someone and they won’t be out of pocket.”