Outback cracks under assault of the Big Dry
Pastor Dale Morgan
Outback cracks under assault of the Big Dry*
Five years of drought have left Australian land parched and towns on the
verge of economic ruin
Phil Mercer in Sydney
Sunday December 10, 2006
The Observer
Australian drought
A farmer moves his sheep in search of food in drought-stricken New South
Wales, Australia. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters
Drought has plunged one of Australia's most famous outback towns to the
brink of social and economic collapse. Bourke - heralded as the 'Real
Gateway to the Outback' - faces oblivion.
Five years of drought has left Bourke facing its worst crisis. Little
wonder Australians are calling this prolonged barren spell the 'Big
Dry'. The earth in this isolated corner of New South Wales, 500 miles
north-west of Sydney, crunches underfoot. Every step stirs a tiny swirl
of fine dust.
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The land is slowly dying of thirst. Some farms are the size of a small
country, yet still they can't produce enough grazing for their
livestock. Farmer Ben Mannix is determined to stay until the drought
passes, but life is a struggle. 'You fight it,' he said. 'You work
through and you pick up your pieces and on you go because breaking down
or giving up isn't going to achieve anything.'
The ground is cracked. Without decent rain, it's been at the mercy of
temperatures that have exceeded 50C.
Even in less extreme times the heat is oppressive. A bone-dry wind dries
the back of your throat. A squadron of flies that won't take no for an
answer mounts another sortie towards unprotected eyes, mouths and ears.
This is the last town before the vast nothingness of the deep interior.
There are smaller townships further inland on unsealed tracks but this
is where pubs, post offices and newsagents stop.
In the wide, sleepy main street in Bourke, no one seems in much of a
hurry - it's too hot. A dozen shops are doing their best to stay afloat,
but when the farming industry is in pain, the whole town suffers.
Some shopfronts are boarded up. The population of this hardy community
is about 3,500 and declining. Those leaving are unlikely to return.
Among the playtime squeals and basketball games at the primary school
there is a real sense of despondency.
'The adults are saying that they might have to evacuate next March,'
said Emily, 11. 'In a few years the town will be dead and all the shops
will go bankrupt.'
As the sun beats down on the playground, children struggle to remember
the last time they saw a downpour. For half their lives they've known
drought.
Twelve-year-old Adam said his friends would dance all night in the rain
when the heavens did finally open, but he was not optimistic: 'If we
don't get rain soon it's going to be pretty hard 'cos my dad's in the
water industry selling irrigation and we might have to move to where
there's more rain.'
A government-sponsored report says Bourke is on the brink of collapse,
its economy in reverse. Since 2001 it has shrunk by 21 per cent. Crime
is up, so is unemployment. There has been an increase in alcohol and
drug abuse. The town's Aborigines are feeling the pinch more than most.
Many rely on casual and seasonal work on the farms. Bourke prides itself
on surviving - and succeeding - in inhospitable conditions. Those who
want to stay do so for good reason. There is money to be made.
The locals say the land here is some of Australia's most fertile and
that in good times you can grow anything, from cotton to citrus fruit.
But the Darling River that the region has relied on has stopped flowing
and forecasters don't expect drought-breaking rains to come until the
middle of next year. 'We're in the worst drought in a hundred years,'
said Peter Costello, the government Treasurer. 'We are facing a
recession, possibly depression, in rural production.'
· Smoke from bushfires burning hundreds of miles away blanketed
Australia's second largest city, Melbourne, yesterday, delaying flights.
Water-bombing aircraft intended to help contain some of the 24 bushfires
burning out of control in the state of Victoria were grounded because of
the smoke. The bushfires, most sparked by lightning strikes, have
blackened 450,000 acres of land.