A group of rural landholders north of Wallumbilla have hit on a novel way to bring farmers together to socialise during what is an extremely testing time for the rural community.

Jenny York and Eileen Emery, both farmers in the Wallumbilla area, were deeply concerned by the effects to the farming community's health, both physically and mentally, brought about by the unrelenting drought conditions and the impacts the CSG industry is having on the properties in the area.

They came up with an idea for a Country of Origin Eating Excellence (COOEE) evening that showplaces food from countries around the world.

Based on the alphabet with the letter "A", the first of these evenings was held at Hyde Park, the home of Trevor and Jenny York and the country on show was, yes, you guessed it, "Australia".

People arrived with all varieties of Aussie foods such as meat pies, dampers, Vegemite scrolls, lamingtons, watermelon and dishes made with Australian grown, owned and manufactured foods, while the menfolk supplied the obligatory beer.

Ron and Betty Stanford from Oakwood brought a ute load of old Australian memorabilia that included bullock yokes, grain bag fillers, hand augers, old chainsaw, sheep handling equipment, hand pump, handcuffs and other unique items.

This caused plenty of interest and discussion of the "good old days".

Another topic of discussion was the problems caused by the critically low levels of water for stock and domestic supplies landholders are facing.

Dams are being cleaned using silt scoops, tractors, dozers, loaders and excavators and the general consensus was that "if you haven't bogged a tractor or dozer in a dam at least once, you haven't been trying hard enough!"

It was pleasing to see that in the face of adversity, the Aussie sense of humour shines through.

The next COOEE evening will be hosted by Karen Howe from Hillside who kindly volunteered the venue.

Belgium was the "B" country drawn from a hat so our group is now madly googling Belgian recipes for inspiration.

Organisers hope other farmers can follow their example and look out for each other.

We are all tired and face huge amounts of adversity every day and the challenges seem never ending, but by creating an opportunity for people to gather together and socialise perhaps may make a positive difference in someone's outlook.