Look at what we got in our 'inbox' here at Accidentally Outback??!!
There’ll be no shortage of demand for Western Australian hay this year, with yields down by a whopping 70 per cent. In a clear sign of the harsh toll the ongoing drought is taking on the state, WA’s hay exports are estimated to drop from an average of 400,000 tonnes per year to less than 150,000 tonnes.
As harvest gets underway in Western Australia, the state’s drought ravaged grain crop has been downgraded to 5.4 million tonnes – half of an average year’s production. But with crops continuing to die under the relentless sun, some believe it’s a generous estimate.
As I type, a flock of sheep thud lightly in the paddocks surrounding the homestead. The sound of motorbikes buzz and the pups bark excitedly. It’s the first day of crutching, and the morning sun streams down on a buxom flock, and unknown bike riders (how on earth can you tell who it is with those helmets on…) stand confidently up on their quick machines as they race to-and-fro, behind the mob to push them forward.
There is no easy answer to the issue of water. After a century of fighting, I feel that we have moved very little. Today, the contest is not between states, but between those who believe that water is essentially for growing food and those who think that a significant chunk of it should flow for the benefit of the environment and, ultimately, our collective soul.
If only it would rain like 2010 every year and the locusts would go away and the flies and mosquitoes would take a long holiday! No, we haven’t made it to paradise yet. We live in Australia and the drought years will come again.
Steady rains have ended ‘drought’ classification, and for the first time in nine years, the entire state of New South Wales is officially ‘drought free.’
As the Murray Darling Catchment is awash with rage over proposed cuts to irrigation access, Paula Doran brings this report from one of the two community consultation session's in Buronga, New South Wales last week.
While more famous for its unique meeting of three state borders, the people of the remote ‘Corner Country’ of outback New South Wales have staked their claim in the film industry.
It’s all swings and roundabouts here, that’s the only way you can describe life in Australia’s heartland. While last year we were enduring drought, dust and catastrophes…this year there’s endless tales of mud, floods and peak seasons.
