The weather report for most areas of Western Queensland included the usual wind speed and direction and temperature as well as “raised dust”. Before we came across this consequence of drought we thought we had seen it all. Camping on the Thomson River just outside Longreach was on parched, cracked riverbed and the inch thick dust at a weir campsite near Barcaldine was testament to the long drought.
One of the amazing aspects of country driving, for me, has been the clear blue sky stretching across fields as far as the eye can see. Further out here is heartbreak.
Gone is the brilliant blue sky and instead a raised dust grey sky meets the “autumn” yellow of dead grass. “Gutwrenching” was a fellow travellers response when we first saw the raised dust enveloping the landscape. Think about it – that is all soil floating up there and it will soon transform into a dust storm if the wind gets up. (See photograph on instagram.)
A visit to the Longreach School of the Air also brought home the extreme difficulty faced by our graziers. Once a term, the kids from stations come into Longreach for a week long session at the school campus. At $10 a day ($70 per week), the cost is beyond the capacity of many farmers.
I will think more deeply about contributing to drought relief in future.
What you thought I would never tell you! 