Drought diary: living without water

The couple live at El Kantara, an hour west of Longreach and although they say this isn’t their worst drought – they took their entire woolclip of 19 bales to town on the back of a truck in 1982 – it is their worst water drought.

They’ve had no rain to run water since April 2012 and their first dam went dry last December.

In another first for the history of Gordon family occupation, they are feeding cattle on the property.

“I did my sums – with the cost of driving back and forth checking agistment cattle, this is far cheaper,” Keith said.

Their stock of round bales from the Ilfracombe region is dwindling though, and Keith expects it will be a lot more costly to source a new supply, maybe from the Atherton Tablelands, but he’s keen to have enough on hand to keep his cattle strong when it rains.

“We’ve still got forage – Whitewood and Leopardwood – to browse on, and we’ve got something to work with, ground cover, this time.”

After many years observing climate, Keith has adopted a theory of selling down sheep in years ending in two, so last year anything over three years old left the property, which is standing the remaining stock in good stead.

In the meantime, the dams keep drying up and stock keep getting bogged.

Jenny has been diarising the El Kantara water story for friends on social media, who look forward to her tongue in cheek observations on some of the testing times being experienced.

They’ve come to associate the nearby Campsie household as the House of Love because of its willingness to take in an endless supply of poddy lambs, and to hear how it’s not just animals but pot plants that are being culled and put on agistment.

Queensland Country Life has obtained Jenny’s permission to reproduce her words and images, which are below.

"So what do you do when water runs out in a paddock? PRAY FOR RAIN. However while you are waiting for it to fall you decide to make a trough and run a line of poly from another watering point in the adjoining paddock. You need man and woman power and a trough mould." - Jenny, September 9.

The moulds were made up in Longreach years ago and have been shared between three properties for water improvements over the years. Keith says they cost around $300 to build, as against $1500 for a new trough from a supplier. The whole process took a day and a half to complete.

Most water infrastructure improvements were up to date at El Kantara, and only small extensions were needed to bring water to paddocks with surface water drying up, to make sure the country could continue to be utilised. Keith said he couldn’t have got a lot more poly even if he wanted to, as he’d been told there was a big demand for it around the state.

"This is the empty Douglas's Dam. Although it looks like there is water, that is the wet mud." - Jenny.

"House dam yesterday, Alex is standing on the old bank before the dam was extended in the early 80's. We suspect there is only a couple of feet left, however fingers are crossed that the bigger end is holding more.

To give away - one green tag weaner poddy and one old poddy called Mair. Why you might ask? Every day, twice a day, they get themselves bogged in the house dam and every day, twice a day we go over and see if yet again they are bogged. Because the dam has gotten so low, weed (lovely and luscious) has started growing and they go over for a mouthful or two. Obviously due to an inability to judge the wet gooey mud from the drying hard mud they end up stuck. We have come to the conclusion that they don't care because they know that those things on two legs will pop up over the bank and come pull them out. Who would have guessed how right they are. I have started threatening them with deportation to another paddock where they will have to mix with the common sheep and eat common sheep tucker and drink from common sheep troughs. It hasn't worked." - Jenny, September 15.

House dam full when the last dry broke around 2010.

"So I have told you all that we have officially started water carting, now here are some photos to prove it. The two large tanks hold 600 gallons and the smaller one 400 gallons, there is to be a third tank put on the back of the truck and another to be put onto the trailer. As it is, to keep the tank at Douglas's Dam three-quarters full Keith has to cart water each day, so with the added tanks he hopes to bring that down to only every second day. The share bore is the lifeline at the moment.

Keith has been carting water for the house as well. He fills this tank which is at the shearers’ quarters and it gravity feeds to the tank at the house. This way there is always one full tank of water. When the job is done for the day, Keith parks up to the fence of the house yard and lets the last of the water drain onto the garden. - Jenny, September 17.

Losing the water for the garden has had a big impact on Jenny. She stopped watering it in June, and they let their sick sheep eat what green was left in the grass at shearing time. “The garden is usually that little pocket of tranquillity,” she said.

The smell of the dwindling supply was also very off-putting and meant the family went elsewhere for evening showers as it got lower and smellier.

“Well, went and put another length of poly onto the pump into the house dam in hopes of getting a bit more out, ha bit of a joke really, less than a foot left and it already has a smell (one day of hot weather does that so imagine a second day) Yep feel like crying, but I will not, others have gone before me, so I am having my cup of cement, pulling on my big girls pants and going outside to do a rain dance.” - Jenny, September 26.

"A lick runs consists of piling the bags of feed and salt onto the truck, driving around the waters and emptying the feed out into feeders which are Avenge bottles with the side cut out and wedged into old tyres. There are about 4-5 feeders at each watering point. Just like the cattle know it is hay day, the sheep also know it is feed day and come ambling in.

I think I know how Mr Whippy feels when he does his rounds. We started with the ewe and lamb blocks for the ewes and salt for the wethers when things first started going sour but now we need something with more oomph. So we get a special feed mix from Causeway's in Townsville. The ewes get mostly the mix and the wethers get part mix part salt." - Jenny, September 21.

"Truck and trailer disappear over the rise. - Jenny, September 23.

In Keith’s words, water carting is a brain dead job but it has to be done. They cart from a share bore, a total distance of 15km, every second day. By the time the tanks are filled then emptied at their destination, three hours are lost from the day. Keith said he knew of people locally who were carting water distances of up to 80km.

"Redundant rain gauge being put to better use – Masked Wood Swallow nesting." - Jenny, September 23.

"When Fogarties dam went dry we had to move the Channel Country cattle to where they could get water. The trough you saw us building back in September is further up this paddock. Here we are coaching them away from dry Fogarties to the trough. They were not really keen. - Jenny, October.

Jenny says the worst thing about droughts is not knowing when they are going to end.

“I hate hearing the 28 day forecast and knowing there’s no rain on the horizon,” she said.