‘I had some guests from Goondiwindi stay with me who came to Lismore for a family celebration. I was interested to hear first hand how the drought is affecting the farmers out there so we did an interview.’
Sherilyn Lennon – “I was posted out to Goondiwindi as a teacher in 1985 which is about 4 hours west of Brisbane. It really is a different world. I met my husband Peter at the local picnic races that same year. His family has lived in the district for generations. I now live on the same property that Peter’s grandparents lived on. It’s a place where family farms get handed down through the generations. Peters extended family – his cousins and nieces- all live on properties nearby.
I was initially a Toowoomba girl. I did my training in Brisbane and Goondiwindi was my first posting. I taught there for 25 years and then about 10 years ago I did my PhD. At the time our three kids were in boarding schools in Brisbane and life was starting to get tougher on the land. Droughts were becoming more frequent and we made the decision that if I could get a job in Brisbane we could streamline the expenses and pull the kids out of boarding school so they could live with me. I was lucky enough to secure a job in the Education faculty a job at Griffith University where I lecture now and I absolutely love it.
My husband has been on the land all his life and he has never seen anything like the current drought. What makes this one so bad is that last year there was a drought as well and this one is now compounding it. Our annual rainfall is supposed to be 24 inches. Last year we had 11.5 inches which is less than half of our annual rainfall. This year we have had 4.5 inches and it’s November.
There are many farmers out our way who are having their second year without a harvest. There are others like us who are into their second year of feeding stock. Herds are being depleted as farmers are selling off core breeding stock to survive. The DNA of these breeding herd is often passed down generationally so this means that Grandad’s DNA is being sold off. These beautiful cows or ewes are being put on trucks and sent off to the abattoirs for slaughter. It’s heartbreaking but farmers just can’t sustain the cost of feeding them any longer. There is nothing left in the paddocks for stock to eat and it’s becoming so difficult to source hay or grain or cottonseed. Every 2 weeks at home a semi trailer comes down the road with another load of feed from wherever my husband can source it. Lately he has been buying sugar cane billets. At one point he was trying to buy sugar cane billets from his usual source and the irony of the situation was that the farmer who was wanting to sell them to him was saying, ‘I’m sorry, I wont be able to deliver this week as it won’t stop raining so I can’t get out into the paddock to harvest the billets.’ That’s QLD for you! In part of the state there is so much rain they can’t harvest and in another part we are being devastated by the worst drought in white man’s history.
We stayed in Lismore last night for a family celebration. Peter came from Goondiwindi and I came from Brisbane so we could meet here. This morning he has had to head back home straight away. He can’t afford to be away from the farm for more than 24 hours because if he’s not back to feed the sheep this afternoon they will start wandering looking for food. They can walk for 15 kms in any direction, through fences, onto highways looking for anything to eat. We have 600 breeding ewes left now. Normally he runs anything up to 2,000 ewes. For the past few months, every 2 or 3 weeks he has to make the heartbreaking decision of which ewes he will send off to the abattoirs next. Unfortunately it is often the ones in the best condition as they are more likely to survive the trip and make the most money. I know he is always going to be particularly sad on those days but what is the alternative? We are starting to hear some really tragic stories of stock losses….
When it does rain and it will, one day it will rain again. When it does it will be at least 2 weeks before there’s enough grass for the sheep to eat but if you have cattle you will probably have to wait at least a month to get feed. It has been a very difficult time for so many people. The other problem that is happening out West now is that people are running out of surface water. We have friends who are trucking in water as well as feed. It’s about $300 for a single truck load of water. This is unsustainable.
I think it’s more important than ever that these farmers talk to each other. Women seem to do this much better than men. We will go into town to get the groceries, catch up at the gym or see each other when we drop the kids to school. I think men really need to be creating opportunities to get together and support one another. They can get far more isolated than women. It’s very important to try to get off farm but at the same time it’s incredibly difficult to do this. If you don’t get off farm you can lose perspective. I count myself as one of the lucky ones because I head off to Brisbane throughout the week and head home most weekends.
Often after these big droughts are followed by a big flood which can be just as deadly. Look what happened to those poor people in Central QLD earlier in the year. They were celebrating the rain and popping the Champagne corks when, before they knew it, their cattle were being washed away. I actually believe in global warming as a man made consequence. Some don’t but I do.
It is not only the farmers who are doing it tough throughout this drought but business houses in our small towns are really struggling as well. When farmers have no money this has a domino effect through the whole community. It’s a very tough time in parts of QLD and NSW at the moment. I know I’m lucky as I have options with my work but my husband is a 3rd generation farmer and I don’t think he would know how to be something else. These men can be very proud. It’s tough enough if you lose a job you’ve had for 10 years but these guys on the land, they are looking at something that has been passed on to them for generations. That’s not easy. The bloodlines of their cattle or sheep herds, the ancestral home…… It’s really made me think about our Indigenous folk. You start to understand what a deep connection to the land can mean and with white folk we’re just talking a few generations, not thousands of years.
It can be a beautiful life when the seasons are working with you. It can be so magical and special. I go out on the weekends and even now I find the smells of the bush intoxicating. My husband cannot see any beauty in it at the moment whereas I see these impossibly beautiful sunsets and these wide open skies. The colours can be so vivid..so rich.. and at night the stars are just magnificent. Peter cannot see any magic at the moment. It breaks my heart.”