BMD Constructions makes a habit of donating to a charitable cause at each of its work sites, with the company matching funds raised by staff buying cans of Coke from a communal Esky.

BMD manager John Sheens admitted the company had to search harder than usual to find a cause in the prosperous Mudgee region, until local man Rob Gillham suggested Gofor Gulgong.

The bloke there was more generous than we thought.

After using the funds to present the gopher hire group with a refurbished machine last month, BMD staffers learned that Gofor Gulgong was starting to replace its gophers as the collection aged.

Gofor Gulgong provides and maintains gophers for residents of Mudgee and Gulgong, and the latest donation takes its collection to 38 machines.

The three new gophers came from a business in Dubbo, which sold BMD two at a discounted rate and donated the third.

“The bloke there was more generous than we thought,” said fundraising coordinator Wayne Compton, who went to Dubbo expecting to buy just one gopher before being offered three.

A planned Australia Day cricket game - which was rained out and replaced by a day at Mudgee’s Federal Hotel - contributed further funds towards the gophers’ purchase.

Stephen Cockcroft of Ulan West project managers Parsons Brinckerhoff was also involved in the Australia Day celebration, and was pleased to be part of the charitable donation by BMD, who he called “just a great bunch of guys”.

“It’s good for the community,” he said.