Publican Priscilla Meli - Pay it Forward for Truckies (26th February, 2024)

The Oasis Exchange Hotel in Torrens Creek, Queensland, has gained national attention for its pay-it-forward scheme for truck drivers. The pub initially offered meals for truckies who were short on cash, and the idea took off after it was posted online. Truck drivers can take a docket off the wall that someone else has paid for and enjoy a free meal or drink, with the hope that they will pay it forward in the future. The pub also offers free showers, meal discounts, and pre-made meals for truck drivers. The inspiration for the scheme came from a regular customer who helped a truck driver in need. The scheme has been a huge success, with thousands of likes and growing support. People can easily donate money to buy a meal and add it to the wall or window. The pub recognizes the important role truck drivers play in keeping the region supplied and stocked. With just 17 people in the town, the pub relies on truckers to keep their doors open. The pay-it-forward scheme You're on Zoos Breakfast. A pub in rural Queensland about 300 kilometres southwest of Townsville, the Oasis Exchange Hotel in Torrance Creek, has recently swept the interest of Australians nationwide after the Republican Priscilla Melly posted a photo online of an absolutely fantastic pay-it-forward scheme. It's dedicated to truck drivers and it's currently running in the venue. To talk us through how it all works, I've got the Republican on the phone. Good morning, Priscilla. Cheers for your time. Good morning. How are you? I'm alright. How are you? Yeah, good. Thank you. It sounds like you've been getting a lot of interest to this pub recently. We've been very busy taking calls and replying to emails from people all over Australia. How exactly does the pay-it-forward scheme in your pub work? So basically it started off as an internal initiative, but everyone wants to participate, so we've opened it up. The pub originally put a few meals on the board for truckies that were a bit tight on cash week to week. They could come and take a meal off the board and next time they came through and they were in a better financial position and they could add the meal to the board. So it was something that we hoped would just sustain itself and help people out every now and then because everybody gets in a bit of a tight spot every now and then. Yeah, we just posted it online to say, hey guys, this is what we've got here for you. Posted it on a few truck sites and it just went viral. What's the response been like once you actually posted it online? Oh, it was crazy. We couldn't keep up. I think our top post normally is probably 50 likes and it was just creeping up and up and up with every breath. I think we're near 5,000 now. It was quite overwhelming. What's the board looking like now with the dockets for the meals on it compared to when you started the initiative? Yeah, it was giving up on the board. It's just grown all over the door and the window. And we just keep posting because we realise that the momentum will end one day and hopefully we've still got some meals to be able to keep doing this for a long time to come. I'm guessing for a regional area like Torrens Creek, truck drivers, they play a pretty important role in keeping the region stocked and supplied. Is your venue a common rest stop for truckies? It is. We're about 160km out of Charters, 95 out of Hewarden and 280 out of Aramac. So we're sort of in the middle of nowhere and we're all that here. But more importantly, our town has 17 people. So we get the tourists from March to September, but it's the truckers that keep our doors open. Did you say it has 17 people, or did I hear that wrong? No, that's not including adults. We might get to 20 if I had a biggie. Oh, right, of course. So, yeah, it's definitely reliant on people passing through or staying in the town. Absolutely. We're talking with publican Priscilla Melly who runs the Oasis Exchange Hotel in Torrens Creek. It's about 300km south-west of Townsville and it's a real hub for truck drivers carrying cargo, supplies and stocking up towns through that area. But she started this brilliant pay-it-forward scheme where a truck driver maybe is a few dollars short, maybe he's just really worried about his finances or does not have enough money to really sustain himself throughout the trip that he's currently doing. They can take a docket off the wall that someone else has paid for and grab a free meal, maybe a beer on the side, and hopefully the idea is the truck driver will end up paying it forward sometime in the future. So, Priscilla, I just want to take a quick break. When I come back, we'll discuss what really was your inspiration for starting this scheme. Quick break. You're on Zoom's break. We're talking to publican Priscilla Melly who runs the Oasis Exchange Hotel in Torrens Creek, about 300km south-west of Townsville. It's really in a properly rural area. And we're discussing the fact she started this brilliant pay-it-forward scheme where a truck driver can walk in, maybe he's had a bad week, maybe he's just really short on cash for the current trip he's doing and he really does not want to worry about it. He can grab a docket off the wall and claim a free meal, maybe a beer on the side, that someone else has paid forward and the idea is he'll end up hopefully paying it forward as well for someone else that gets in strife. Now, Priscilla, I hear that you had benefits for truck drivers way before this scheme even started. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So we offer them free, you know, hot showers 24-7. We give them a 10% meal discount and, yeah, we try and do what we can. We do pre-made meals, so whatever I cook in the pub, we package it and freeze it. We call them dindings. And we offer them sheets so that they can fill their fridges and, you know, with healthy meals. Sometimes they call us knowing that they're going to be late and we'll organise a meal to be left out the front somewhere for them. What was your inspiration for starting this originally? So one of our regulars came in and he just helped the truckers to fix an airbag issue and the driver said to him, listen, mate, we're doing it a bit hard, me and the missus, we've got... I've got $200 to get from town to the person and back again. I'm happy to give you $100 to say thank you for helping me and, of course, the other truck driver said, no, don't worry about it. And, yeah, we were just talking about that and I did see something on the net, something similar that they were doing in the States and I asked Cole, who's my partner here, what if we do this for the truck drivers? He said, we'll give it a whirl. And, yeah, it's gone viral. How can I go about donating some money to put a meal up on the... I'd say the board, but it's no longer the board. That's the door, the window. It's the whole wall, everything about it. And I'll tell you what they like in that. Oh, it's as easy as that. Right, OK. Just hold the phone for a sec. I'll be happy to put through a couple of dollars to buy a steak sandwich or a beer or something, you know, and stick it on the wall or the window. Thank you so much for your time, Priscilla. No worries. Thank you. There was publican Priscilla Melly. She runs the Oasis Exchange Hotel in Torrance Creek, which is about 300km southwest of Townsville in Queensland, and they're currently running a pay-it-forward scheme where truck drivers that travel through the town, it has just 17 people in it, can pop into the pub and if they're down on their luck or they're short on money for whatever reason or they're struggling financially, they can happily pick up one of these dockets off the wall and they'll have a meal and a beer or a drink, or just, you know, a sandwich paid for them just to really get them through the day. And considering pretty much if the trucks stop, the country stops, I think it's well worth putting in a couple of dollars for the cause. You're on Zoom's breaking.