I was just driving into the office and I heard on the radio news that the Salvation Army has asked people to stop donating ‘stuff’ to those affected by the bushfire. They simply have too much. You can hear that Australia has opened its collective storage spaces and had a massive spring clean – and anything halfway decent has found itself on its way to Victoria.

We contacted our Victorian suppliers last week – some of which may have been effected with the fires. All are intact. We then contacted a much wider group to see what they wanted from us most in way of support. The overwhelming response… ‘just keep sending us customers’.

In the last 10 days or so (and with the heat wave prior to that) business has slowed to a trickle for many businesses in Victoria – not just in the bushfire affected areas.

The best thing we can all do at the moment to help Victoria is to keep doing business – to keep consuming, to keep having coffees and to keep doing activities. There might be smoke in the sky, and the scenery not so great – but it is all part of the experience.

The Red Cross continues to raise the much-needed cash. But what we will do in addition is to keep delivering as much business to our 300 suppliers in Victoria that we can. Continuing to do business is a great way to help.