IT IS the end of the road for a mob of western Queensland cattle that have been out on the long paddock for well over a year.
Richard Kinnon, who owns 600 of a 1600-head mob being droved through the Central Highlands, decided on Tuesday that enough was enough.
"We are selling everything now - they are on the market," Mr Kinnon said.
"We spent half a million trying to keep cattle and sheep alive and we are out of jumps now - I can't borrow any more money."
Mr Kinnon said even if his properties in Aramac and Longreach received rain now, the country would need 18 months spelling before cattle were brought back. "We have had those cattle on the road for 18 months - they've done 1500 kilometres - and you do it because you think you can ride it out and will have something at the end of it."
A couple of showers in Longreach had been enough for some people to just scrape through, he said. However, once families left the land they would be unable to return, and that was a worry for Mr Kinnon. "The sad part of this is a drought is a slow-moving disaster - with cyclones and earthquakes you have all the media, but with a drought it kind of grows on you and you don't realise how bad it's going to get."
The Kinnons' move into tourism eight years ago has kept them afloat and has also given them the ability to spend on their stock.
"Our city cousins are supporting us big time - it is not just the monetary support but the moral support," he said. "Seeing them jump in a car and come out and see this drought - it helps the whole region, it helps the morale of the people here and it helps to know our city cousins are connected with the land."
While the Kinnons' 600 head are on the market, the other 1000 will stay on the road, under guidance of head drover Peter Bear, whom Queensland Country Life caught up with just outside Springsure.
He and his team have been on the road for the past year. He started walking the 1600-head mob from Aramac, to Muckadilla, from Rolleston to Springsure and now back to Rolleston. "We just keep following the grass and we will stay in the Central Highlands. It is too late in the season to head back out west because there has been no rain," Mr Bear said.
The pace is a slow 5km a day, as there are 600 branded calves and another 250 are to be born. In fact, 23 were born in the past three days.
"We have sort of been pretty lucky," Mr Bear said of the cattle's condition.
"These blokes who own them didn't let them get too bad before getting them out. We got these out just in time."
Mr Bear said local landholders had been very supportive and there was always someone dropping off a cake or water or helping out if they needed something.
"It's a 20-month job so you have got to enjoy it otherwise you wouldn't do it. The fellas working for me - it takes a different breed to get up every morning, seven days a week.
"They are good and are dedicated."
