WHEN Norm Philp’s father put down the 40,000 yard house dam at Angeldool west of Longreach in the early 1950s, he predicted that if it went dry, the family would be walking off.
Nearly 60 years later Norm is reluctant to see how much water is left.
“I’ve touched the bottom one other year but it’s too cold at the moment – I might test it out when it warms up,” Norm said.
“There’ll be 50 years of silt there too.”
This year isn’t the driest recorded at Angeldool – only 57mm of rain fell in 2003 – but it’s going close at the moment, with only 61mm tipped out of the gauge so far in 2013.
According to Norm, it’s a “different sort of a drought”, with lots of dry stalks left and not much bare ground.
“It’s all aesthetics though – it just means we can’t see as many gidyea stones this time round.”
They would normally run 200 head of cattle and 8,000 sheep on the stony ridge country but at the moment they have lightened off to around 4,000 sheep, consisting of unjoined young ewes, weaners and 600 lambs, the sum total of what was born this year.
On top of below average rain in 2012, which saw the couple begin feeding cottonseed in November, are the numbers of kangaroos on the property.
“They have been unbelievable, like maggots swarming over the place,” Rose said.
The Philps tried to save a paddock close to the house to hold sheep in over shearing but it was flogged out by roos well before time.
Water is becoming a concern as well. One 8000ha block has been completely destocked and preparations are being made to make troughs from handmade moulds and begin carting water.
“We think we’ve got enough but it’s not in the right places,” Norm said.
“We just tick off one day at a time and hope it will rain soon,” Rose said.
“It’s frustrating to know that all the money we would have put into super is sitting in our sheepyards in cottonseed.”
