By Paul Homewood
Drought is always a tragedy for farmers, but is the current drought in NSW really as bad as the Telegraph is making out?
On Monday afternoon, James Hamilton, a sixth-generation farmer in south-east Australia, looked out at the dry bristly stubble covering his 4,000 acre property and then went inside his homestead to have the conversation that he and his wife Amanda had both been dreading.
Since the beginning of the year, this typically lush stretch of farmland near the inland town of Narromine, 260 miles west of Sydney, has received just two inches of rain, compared with an average annual rainfall of 18 inches.
The long dry spell has emptied creeks and riverbeds, withered crops, left animals starving and forced farmers such as Mr and Mrs Hamilton to acknowledge – as they did this week – that they will have no harvest. The couple, who have three teenage daughters, will also soon have a farm without livestock: on Tuesday, they are selling their 475 sheep, which have become too expensive to feed and will be put up for auction.
Pointing to a paddock of hard soil, Mr Hamilton, 47, whose family has been on the land locally for 150 years, told The Telegraph of his dawning realisation that – for the first time in his life – he would have a barren farm. The drought conditions, he said, were “the worst I have ever seen”.
“It had been playing on my mind that we are not having a harvest,” he said.
As of Monday, my wife and I have now accepted that we are not having a harvest. That is hard. It is heartbreaking. Until then you are looking to hope. Every time they predict rain, it doesn’t come
It is a scene that is playing out across much of the country’s south-east, which has experienced its driest autumn since the famous Federation drought in 1902. This week, New South Wales declared that the entire state was in drought. In some areas, residents face water restrictions such as three-minute showers and a limit of two weekly washing loads.
For many farmers, the crippling 18-month drought is raising difficult questions about their future on the land. In recent decades, the number of farms has been decreasing due to falling profits, lower prices for commodities, water shortages, the increasingly tough weather and a trend of consolidation. There are now about 123,000 farming estates in Australia, a drop of 20 per cent since 2006.
The traditional image of Australia as a nation of toiling workers on the land is fading: the average age of farmers today is 56. When conditions are unfavourable, it can be a gruelling existence.
James Hamilton and his wife Amanda have decided to sell their sheep, which have become too expensive to feed Credit: Graham Jepson/Telegraph
Instead of the lush foot-high wheat crops that would normally cover Mr Hamilton’s paddocks, tiny shoots can barely be seen above the brown soil. A pond in a sheep-grazing paddock is at ten per cent of its capacity.
To add to his troubles, hordes of kangaroos have arrived from drier parts further west in search of feed. They rush to the more fertile fields and consume any surviving crops. Earlier this week, Mr Hamilton invited a licenced kangaroo shooter to the property to conduct a cull. The shooter arrived at 2am and killed some of the larger kangaroos, which can be sold for meat.
For the Hamilton family, the lack of harvest means no income. As for the livestock, each sheep cost about £90, produced £39 of wool and will sell for about £20. This means the farm, despite hours of toil, will produce a net loss for the year, heightened by expenses such as paying for seeds and hiring shearers and labourers.
“It just sucks the energy out of you,” Mr Hamilton said. “You start getting your head around getting more debt. My wife [who is from Sydney] still struggles with the notion that you can do everything right and it all comes down to the weather.”
Sheep roam across the dry fields at Narromine, New South Wales Credit: Graham Jepson/Telegraph
In towns across Australia, local communities have been running charity and food drives, including collecting hay, driving tank-loads of water to affected areas or even knitting jumpers to help lambs make it through the cold. The drought has attracted a wave of media attention, including front-page pictures of stricken sheep and parched kangaroos, which have helped to generate millions of dollars in donations from individuals and companies.
Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister, said the drought was “shocking” and promised payments of £6,900 to struggling farmers as part of a £109 million relief package. This adds to existing payments for poorer farmers of about £9,000.
"It is designed to keep body and soul together, not designed to pay for fodder," he said of the extra payments.
“The prospect is that it’s going to be a dry spring and a hot dry summer. They will need more support right through that period.”
Edwina Robertson, a campaigner for support for drought-affected farmers, said the package was “very disappointing”.
Instead of the lush foot-high wheat crops that would normally cover Mr Hamilton’s paddocks, tiny shoots can barely be seen above the brown soil Credit: Graham Jepson/Telegraph
“I think there’s just no understanding of what people need and how dire it is,” she told ABC News.
But the package also raised concerns about the role of the government in propping up farms which may not be viable.
“I think the long-term future of drought assistance can’t be divorced from judgement that ultimately [has] got to be made about the sustainability of agriculture in certain parts of the country in the face of climate change,” economist Saul Eslake told Fairfax Media.
”Just throwing cash at farmers in what seem to be increasingly frequent droughts is ultimately not helping the farmers, as well as being a waste of taxpayer money.”
Mr Hamilton, whose family has been on the land locally for 150 years, told The Telegraph of his dawning realisation that he would have a barren farm Credit: Graham Jepson/Telegraph
So how do these claims stack up?
1) It is a scene that is playing out across much of the country’s south-east, which has experienced its driest autumn since the famous Federation drought in 1902
Well, not according to the Australian BOM, either in NSW itself or the south east as a whole:
2) For many farmers, the crippling 18-month drought is raising difficult questions about their future on the land
BOM don’t give 18-month totals, but the 12 months to June certainly show nothing unprecedented. Indeed droughts like the current one were almost the norm prior to 1950.
Furthermore when we look at annual totals, we see that 2017 was actually wetter than average.
3) I think the long-term future of drought assistance can’t be divorced from judgement that ultimately [has] got to be made about the sustainability of agriculture in certain parts of the country in the face of climate change
As the above chart shows, since 1950 NSW has been much wetter than it was before.
The same applies to Southern Australia as a whole.
The simple reality is that Australia has long been a country where severe droughts are endemic.
But for a proper perspective, the BOM publish drought reports. So far this year, while most of NSW has a serious rainfall deficiency, only a few isolated spots have the lowest rainfall on record.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/drought/
Shame on the Telegraph for using a genuine human tragedy to play the climate change card.
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