The land falls silent: Australian farmers battle life without rain

Australian Summer Set to Be One of the HOTTEST on Record

Bored Koala.com,

23 August , 2018

There’s no relief in sight for drought-stricken farmers in desperate need for the heavens to open.

The dry spell is set to continue in New South Wales and Queensland in the coming months, according to Queensland-based weather expert Dave Taylor, who runs the East Coast Weather and Brisbane Weather Facebook pages.

‘It doesn’t look great for any drought-breaking rains,’ he posted on Thursday.

‘November-December looks slightly above average for the eastern seaboard but nothing drought-breaking. Not a very positive outlook for our farmers, but this can change in a heartbeat.’

He dismissed widespread predictions of a rain bomb forecast for this weekend.

Mr Taylor summed up the upcoming summer in one word – hot!

‘Summer is going to be interesting this year, we have global warming, which is heating the planet up and a weak El Nino,’ he posted.

Mr Taylor also recently predicted severe heatwaves across Queensland and New South Wales this summer could have similar intensity as the 1983 heatwave.

‘Summer this year will be hotter than last summer with temperatures on average up to two degrees above average,’ Mr Taylor predicted.

‘Some areas may easily exceed above four degrees above average. Rainfall across Queensland and NSW will be below average which some areas may record close to its lowest rainfall totals in a while.

Thunderstorms will be stronger than previous seasons but will be fewer.

‘Thunderstorms will be smaller but more violent than previous, will also see a few dry thunderstorms,’ Mr Taylor said.

‘Storm season is starting to look more promising and very severe. Some areas may get 20mm above average.’

‘Dry thunderstorms contain less rain than what general thunderstorms do but can still produce hail and dangerous lightning and specially dangerous winds.’

Cyclones will be the low average but more intense which may have similar intensity to those experienced in the Northern Hemisphere.

If you live in the sunshine state, the January-February forecast looks above average for North Queensland due to the typical cyclone season.

‘There is also a huge chance of a big rain event south of Bundaberg in the way of tropical cyclone this system will bring a big flood event to south-east Queensland. But this will be more likely south of about Hervey Bay,’ Mr Taylor said.

Parrots flock to Sydney amid NSW's record warmth, deepening drought

Sydney's driest start to a year since 1968 appears to be encouraging a trend that has nudged large flocks of corellas and other parrots to set up home in Sydney's parklands in recent years, experts say.

The city has posted its fourth-driest January-August on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Richmond, on Sydney's north-west, has not had such a dry beginning to a year since records began in 1928.

Hundreds of little corellas have flocked to Queens Park in Sydney’s eastern suburbs   Photo: Nick Moir

"It's really dry - all the animals are struggling," said Michael Sheils, supervisor of Australian fauna at Taronga Zoo.

"When their food source dries up, they come looking ... they're not going to survive where they are."

Large flocks of little corellas, such as those spotted at Queens Park in Sydney's east on Monday, have become more common over the past decade, Richard Major, principal research scientist at the Australian Museum, said.

The land falls silent: Australian farmers battle life without rain

Years of drought across New South Wales and Queensland force graziers to question their future

Nearly 40km from Augathella (population 450), Doug and Rachelle Cameron load supplements for their cattle. The day is typical for an Australian drought, still and silent as if the landscape has gone to sleep.

Their children Stirling, 11, Ella, 8 and Grace, 6 jump out of the ute and kick around the dust and cow pats as their cattle mill around the water troughs. Muffy the overgrown grey poddy calf comes up to watch. A bird’s nest sits in the struts of a disused windmill.

Their 34,000 acre station, Nive Downs, is 750km inland from Brisbane in south-west Queensland and they are facing their fifth year of drought. For the Camerons, the big dry started after the floods of 2012. Like most diligent farmers, they have tried to cut down their herd to take pressure off pastures and ensure they don’t need to spend too much on feed.

The couple met in agricultural college. Rachelle grew up on a cattle property on the coast, all green pastures, rivers and mountains, a stark contrast to the flat dry country around Augathella.

“Most people around here are pretty active in de-stocking, they have sold replacement heifers but we are lucky in that we have kept our dry stock but they will be going pretty shortly if it doesn’t rain,” says Rachelle.

Drought has dominated the media debate in Australia in the past month after the whole of New South Wales was drought declared. Further north though, a majority of Queensland has been in drought for up to seven years. Myriad charities have sprung up raising cash, fodder and services for farmers. Tradesmen are offering to fix sheds, knitting clubs are making little jackets for orphaned lambs, city residents are travelling inland to inject cash into small towns via a coffee and a pie.

Debate over drought and climate change was only briefly eclipsed by the latest overthrow of an Australian prime minister as Malcolm Turnbull was deposed by members of his own Liberal party. He toppled the previous prime minister Tony Abbott in 2015, a few years after this latest drought began.

Even in the worst times, you have to get away, go to the beach for a week and that’s for sanity as much as anything.

While most Australian farmers prepare for drought, the latest dry in the eastern states is lingering on and most have eaten through their reserves; of fodder, cash and patience. In a normal year, the Cameron family gets 19 inches of annual rainfall on Nive Downs, yet near the end of August they have only had six. Talk turns to what normal is.

“The new norm seems to be drier and hotter over the years we have been here with our average summer temperatures,” Rachelle says. “I wouldn’t say [climate change] is not happening. It seems to be all or nothing in the country.”

The Cameron’s have cut their breeder herd of Angus Charolais cross down from 1,300 to 900 and they are preparing for the possibility they will not get their usual summer rain. Again. They are also trying to increase cash flow by diversifying into production of Nive Beef jerky. It was an idea Doug hit on after a cattle price crash due to a temporary live export ban in 2011 which caused prices to plummet to $50 a head. He stopped at a roadhouse on the way back from the saleyards and saw a 25g packet of beef jerky for $5.

“I thought I could sell 10 of those and it’s the same as the price for the whole cow,” says Doug.

“It didn’t matter what I did to the cattle, we could have the best genetics, the best everything, but outside influences just crushed us. I thought maybe we can make something out of the jerky and set the price.”

The last big drought was from the late 1990s to 2010, known as the Millennium drought, when southern Australia suffered persistent dry periods but northern Australia got above average rainfall. In previous droughts, a section of the farm sector resisted the science of climate change, but this time more farmers are considering the possibilities.

Last week, the first female president of the National Farmers Federation, Fiona Simson, declared climate change would make droughts worse. Days earlier, her predecessor Brent Finlay criticised politicians for “jumping in front of cameras” in drought while failing to create effective policy to deal with drought and climate change.

The farm lobby also accused the Coalition government of failing to implement a national drought policy.

The drought has got tangled up in energy policy which was used as a stalking horse by conservative Liberals, in some cases climate deniers, to overthrow their more progressive leader Turnbull. over climate change, Turnbull later became prime minister and tried to implement a technology neutral energy policy. Conservative Liberals want their government to subsidise coal and gas. As they fought amongst themselves, the spectre of drought amplified the climate change debate, the energy mix and power prices.

Louise and Andrew Martin have a sheep property an hour north of the Camerons around Tambo. The station is in Mitchell grass country, an old inland sea, 860km north-west of Brisbane. Their fertile black soil swells and contracts with heat and rain. Andrew takes a long term view on climate as he holds an ancient ammonite fossil, disgorged by paddocks. Rather than debate climate change, Andrew is more interested in preparing for whatever climate throws at him.

“The best way of dealing with drought is accepting you are going to have one,” Andrew says.

The Martins prepared by making 200 bales of hay off their pastures in good years but they produced fewer lambs since the drought took hold and that means less income for to pay debts. Still, they don’t believe in subsidies. Andrew, who is also mayor of the Blackhall-Tambo region, would rather see funding go to councils to create work for locals by upgrading infrastructure such as roads and community buildings.

“There is no better anti-depressant than hope, hope is cash, cash comes from work, work comes from jobs, cash goes back into the business,” he says.

As for individual businesses, Andrew follows his own “stabbed rodent” theory rather than what he calls “agrarian socialism”. He believes subsidies create dependency.

“So we just get out of this drought and fall into the next bastard and instead of recognising we have had a gift from the Almighty with great rain and go like a stabbed rodent to build up a bit of fat for the next pinch, people say if we get into trouble, someone will help us. They will give us a payout.”

Like the Camerons, the Martins have also tried to diversify. Andrew breeds donkeys which are used by some sheep producers as flock guards for lambing to ward off wild dogs. Five years ago at the beginning of the drought, they banded together with neighbours to build a cluster fence around the outside of their properties to keep out the dogs. It improved their lambing and increased social interaction in one of their driest years on record.

“The people within the cluster got together monthly to discuss the fence over beer and dinner at the pub, it gave us a really positive goal,” says Louise.

“Otherwise each day limps into another. Even in the worst times, you have to get away, go to the beach for a week and that’s for sanity as much as anything. It’s good for the soul.”