FLINDERS shire deputy mayor Ninian Stewart-Moore has described the feed and water conditions in half his shire as woeful.
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He last week urged producers experiencing dry conditions in the Flinders district to familiarise themselves with the process involved in obtaining an individually droughted property (IDP) declaration.
"Landholders and ratepayers look to the shire for assistance, and people are asking us what's being done," he said.
"I wanted them to know what the procedure was."
He estimated that about half the Flinders shire was suffering from the lack of summer rain.
"East of the Hughenden/Muttaburra Road and the upper reaches of the Lake Eyre Basin are woeful," he said.
"The northern part, the basalt country, has got half a season."
The lack of water is becoming as much a problem as the lack of feed in some areas of the shire, with no summer runoff to fill storages.
Climate risk state coordinator Lew Markey, who is based at Longreach, said the number of active IDPs was quite low considering the size of the areas around the state experiencing parched conditions.
At present there are 30 IDPs in the system, with more to be processed.
Five of these are from the south region, two each from central and north regions, and 21 from the west region, which covers an area from Paroo north to Flinders and across to Mt Isa and border shires.
Mr Markey said no shires were drought declared at this stage.
However, local drought committees across the State usually met at the end of the summer growing season to consider a position and send recommendations to the minister, he said.
Mr Markey chairs 13 local drought committees and said a number of these meetings were under way now.
"If growers believe they are in a drought situation, I encourage them to apply for a drought declaration," he said.
The State's Drought Recovery Assis-tance Scheme offers four types of freight subsidy:
l For the transport of fodder and water for livestock.
l For livestock returning from agistment or animals purchased for restocking after a drought.
The maximum amount that can be claimed each financial year is $20,000 per property.
Mr Markey said that once an IDP had been granted, movements in the two- month period prior to that date were eligible for assistance and for restocking credits.
