Australia's crippling drought crisis: Overcoming past mistakes to save ourselves for the future
AUSTRALIA is battling through one of its worst droughts in history. Things are so bad, a town won't have any water by November.
Stephanie Bedo
news.com.auAugust 6, 20182:07pm
Drought devastates central NSW region
The Jerry family farm 'Marlborough', 40km outside Coonabarabran where the longer term outlook for rain is dire. Picture: Brook Mitchell/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images
AUSTRALIANS have long had a reputation for being resilient.
Our country has survived severe weather extremes and devastating droughts, the worst of which we are in now.
So having pulled through centuries of "big dry" challenges, Aussies are asking how and why the nation finds itself in the worst spell we have seen in 400 years.
There's been enough scientific analysis, countless government reports, policy reviews, funding strategies, mental health studies and tragic suicides to indicate where Australia is going wrong and what we need to do better next time.
But next time is now, and despite everything our rural communities have overcome and learnt, it appears not all younger farmers are learning from past mistakes.
Some farmers say the only water they've seen in years is the tears on their pillows.
Livestock is being slaughtered by the thousands, farmers are in financial ruin, being sent into depression, and Aussies are still buying produce from overseas at the checkout, while states such as New South Wales are 99 per cent drought-stricken.
Cunnamulla's Robyn Russell has seen it all before. In 2001, when all her family had passed away, she had to move back to Charlotte Plains to take over their property in the middle of drought.
"It was bad — sheep dying, lambs dying, cattle dying — we started a feeding program to start and save them," Mrs Russell recalls.
"I was there for about four years without my husband with my young kids."
Farmer Robyn Bailey on her Charlotte Plains propertySource:Supplied
Her husband eventually joined her and they had six "amazing" years together before he died of a brain tumour.
These days she's back running things on her own, with sporadic help from her two sons.
"There are a few of us women — I'm not unique — there are lots of wonderful women who manage the property after their husband passes away," Mrs Russell says.
"We are 54km from Cunnamulla and about 650km from Toowoomba. Our closest neighbours are 15 minutes' drive away on a dirt road but they often call in as they drive past. We stick together. We have to."
The isolation can be crippling. That's where groups like Frontier Services come in, and Mrs Russell says they have been "like family" visiting her over the years.
Volunteers and bush chaplains visit remote communities to help in any way they can and sometimes it's as simple as having a chat. Some of these farmers have been cut off for years.
"It is gruelling, it is a never ending job to go out every second day to get food for sheep because there is no grass," Mrs Russell says.
"Hay is very costly. When things get grim for us graziers with the drought, the costs go up and we are all after it."
Australia's drought crisis: This is how you can help
Farmers have reported churning through $1 million in a year just trying to feed their livestock.
Buy a Bale founder Charles Alder says a trailer of hay alone costs about $2500 and with transport costs as high as $5000 to get a supply to a property, feeding animals is an incredibly costly exercise.
Trailers can have between 40 and 60 hay bales on them and one trailer goes to just one farmer because the resource is so desperately needed at the moment with waiting lists hundreds of properties long.
TOWN WITH THREE MONTHS OF WATER LEFT
Australia's drought crisis has become so severe, country towns are mere months away from running out of water.
The NSW country town of Murrundi, in the state's Hunter Region, has three to four months of water left — and that's if they perfectly stick to stringent water restrictions.
Jen Morris, the boss of the town's White Hart Hotel, told the ABC things have become so bad they're on the verge of trucking in water — but the town doesn't even have any tanks they could store the water in.
"It's a lot of stress to think that we're using a lot of the town water considering how low the water level is," she said.
"So it's always in the back of your mind how much you're using.
"[It's] really hard in a pub where you've got to keep everything sanitised and clean," she said.
"I just feel bad, I feel like we're using a lot more than what we should be, but we can't use any less than what we're using," she said.
And for Murrundi locals — things are only going to get worse considering summer is a few months away which means even less rainfall.
The town is now looking into groundwater bores — an expensive experiment the local council can't even afford — and will spend the next few weeks doing exploratory drilling.
If that fails, the town will have to start trucking in water for residents.
Grazier Mark Wylie told the ABC he's spend thousands trying to find groundwater on his Murrundi farm.
"We have spent $30,000 in the last six weeks having water diviners and bore drillers on the property, exploring for alternative water supplies," he said.
"Unfortunately we have been totally unsuccessful in sourcing any alternative water supply."
The country town of Murrurundi is running out of water. Picture: Bruce TindaleSource:Supplied
GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES CASH PAYMENTS FOR FARMERS
The Turnbull government has announced farmers will be eligible for immediate additional financial support.
The federal government has already extended the Farm Household Allowance scheme, the changes made effective from 1 August.
The changes, announced today will mean eligible households will receive two lump sum payments of $12,000.
The prime minister on Sunday returned to a farm at Trangie in central NSW to announce the $190 million relief package which includes a boost for mental health services.
He described some farmers' situations as diabolical and tragic, as they battle dry conditions across large swathes of eastern and southern Australia.
"You put the food on our tables, the fibre that goes on our backs and we have your back," he told reporters on Sunday.
Thousands more farmers will be able to access the support, with the government changing the assets test.
"We can't make it rain. But we can ensure that farming families and their communities get all the support they need to get through the drought, recover and get back on their feet" the government said in a statement.
More changes are to be announced in the coming weeks, with the government saying these changes are just "phase one".
Mr Turnbull was pictured hugging a distraught farmer in regional NSW earlier today after he announced the package.
Distraught woman consoled by PM Malcolm Turnbull in drought-stricken NSW.https://t.co/KjG3MxYRu6 pic.twitter.com/5tbV1RGmHX
— ABC Rural (@ABCRural) August 5, 2018
YOUNG FARMERS HARDEST HIT
Three young farmers spoke to ABC radio this week about their plight, with one describing the "desperate situation in a red sand landscape with skeletal kangaroos" as heartbreaking.
Some are deeply troubled about their future as a farmer and it's no wonder why.
A new study out this week reveals young Aussies farmers are the hardest hit by drought stress.
University of Newcastle researcher Emma Austin found farmers under 35 who live and work on their properties are struggling financially and those based in the most remote regions of NSW are the most susceptible to drought-related stress.
That age group reported higher personal and community drought-related stress than older respondents in the Australian Rural Mental Health Study which ran from 2007 to 2013.
The researchers said it was imperative support programs for drought-affected communities incorporated an understanding of the relationship between drought and mental health.
"The slow onset of the impact of drought contrasts with the immediate effects of extremes such as cyclones and floods," they wrote.
Nothing green in sight. Sheep are given a feed of cotton seed on the Taylor family farm at Coonabarabran in the Central Western region of NSW. Picture: Brook Mitchell/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images
"General practitioners are in a unique position to contribute to programs and initiatives for relieving stress related to climate adversity and for supporting farmers experiencing stress. "Educating general practitioners about drought and stress in farming communities, as well as about practical approaches to supporting farmer health and safety, is critical."
Other researchers like University of Canberra's Jacki Schirmer have found younger farmers aren't learning from the past — older women cope better and the younger generations should take a leaf out of their books.
Dr Schirmer says some farmers "run the guts out of their land" to desperately make money while others take less profit in the good years so they have enough aside to make it through the next drought.
She says to cope over the long term, we need to reduce the risk of farmers having bad outcomes.
To do that we need to better prepare people and not offer Band-Aid solutions, Dr Schirmer says.
Previous studies show clear criteria is needed to help farmers and communities in recovery, or the "green drought" phase.
"In the long term it's important to build resilience to drought — so we need to provide support now to help those who are having an incredibly difficult time," Dr Schirmer says.
"But we also need to recognise that severe droughts are predicted to happen more often under climate change, and we need to have ongoing programs in place that help build preparedness for drought before it happens as well as providing support when it is impacting farmers."
— With Wires
Go to Frontiers Service for information on how you can help the drought crisis
'Get a f***ing job': CBD protesters blasted
Enormous iceberg threatening the world
David Attenborough blasts Australia
World sweats through hottest June ever
Europe melts in record scorcher
'Hell is coming': Europe melts
Nudists swelter under 'Sahara bubble'