Red Cross aiding Aussie farmers

“We’re coming up to 18 months without decent rain,” Mr Cannon said.

“The rainfall records at the post office go back to 1891, and based of those, this is the driest period year of any year on record. We haven’t measured three inches for the year,” he said.

Mr Cannon’s family has been farming at Peak Hill, near Dubbo, for 106 years, and this year he needed to buy feed to keep his animals alive.

“We run about 3,400 breeding ewes. We do grow crops as well, but last year was a very hard year and our crops didn’t yield very much at all.

“We don’t buy in grain unless it’s an extreme drought. It’s like the Eskimos asking for ice donations. But what we’re facing at present is something we’ve never encountered before.”

He said there’s enough feed to get his animals through to October or November, but without decent rain “going into next year, we will have nothing on hand to feed if it gets tough again.

“That’s a real worry. We’ve got some pretty serious decisions to make soon.”

To assist, Australian Red Cross, backed by the Commonwealth Bank, Australia Post and Virgin Australia, along with other corporate and public donors have raised $11m through the month of August to be distributed to farming families.

The money, distributed by community partners, the Country Women’s Association in Qld and NSW, is helping pay household expenses, and according to Australian Red Cross’ Emergency Services National Resilience advisor John Richardson is bringing relief to families in NSW, the ACT and Qld.

“In the past week we’ve started hearing about the positive impact the donations have had in farming communities where money is tight and families are making tough, often heartbreaking decisions, to keep on top of the bills coming in,” Mr Richardson said.

“We’ve heard about the relief of bills being paid; of families able to put food on the table through a few more months; and, of children being able to join friends on school excursions after their family applied for drought funds,” he said.

“A dairy farmer told us that she’d expected the application process to be long and demeaning and that she and her family were already broken by needing to reach out for help, but she was delighted to find applying for funds was easy and the vouchers she needed to pay bills came through quickly.”

Red Cross volunteer Sue Strahorn has been farming with her husband Robert for four decades.

“The drought has really been biting here this year. I see Robert coming in, and he’s very quiet, and we’ve got ewes on which are lambing at the moment, so we’re feeding those, and that’s extra mouths to feed.” Mrs Stahorn said.

“There’s a lot of families that don’t have money to purchase food. There are families that have tried to feed their children while they’ve been virtually living on next-to-nothing rations themselves,”  she said.

Mr Richardson said $1m in Red Cross drought funds had already been distributed by the Country Women’s Association, and that applications for funds to pay for household essentials, like groceries, petrol, medical bills and school fees were open to farming families in drought-affected areas right now.