Ilfracombe graziers among many waiting for La Nina to eventuate

Underscoring the situation they're in are memories of the January and April 2016 Burrumbuttock mercy dash hay runs to the district, nearly five years ago now.

Peter and Kimble Thomas took over the family property in 2014 and had to begin destocking immediately.

"We sold over 14,000 sheep up until 2015," Mr Thomas recalled. "That brought us back to ground zero. If anyone here was running 10 per cent of their normal numbers, they had too many on."

Their only relief was 600mm of winter rain in 2016, allowing them to take on some agistment stock for a while.

Since then it's been a balancing act of playing the cards in front of them.

Mr Thomas said the hardest decision was whether to restock when they'd had only half a season, as most of them turned out to be.

"Most years we had about 200mm of rain but the storms have been too far apart to get a response (from the grass)," he said.

This year they have close to a third of their usual sheep flock left but only a small number of wethers are at Beaconsfield; the breeding sheep are all on agistment on Thargomindah and Charleville properties.

"We feel agistment preserves the welfare of the stock and it allows us some production benefit," Mr Thomas said. "With rain forecast, it will hopefully allow the country to rest before we bring them home."

If general rain doesn't eventuate, another solution might be needed for the agisted sheep.

A lot of people have suggested off-farm work as a revenue alternative but it's not an option that stacks up for the Thomases, considering the cost of things going wrong at home when they're not there to deal with it.

"If you've got a job in town you can't just go and deal with things at home as they arise," Ms Thomas said.

She also chose distance education for their four children rather than send them into the local school so that she was home if her husband needed a helping hand.

"We haven't employed anyone for two years," she said. "I just don't think it's safe for the men to be working on their own all day."

Just to the south of them, Rob and Shona Hoolihan have some Boer and rangeland goats running on Elmsdale but have carried very little stock since 2012.

This drought is the first time the Hoolihans have fully destocked the 6475ha property.

"Since 2012 we've had more time with nothing on than with stock on," Mr Hoolihan said.

In 2018 he gave away 18 years of fencing, citing the labour shortage as a major frustration, and sold another block of land down the Thomson River to take over the Central West Rural business in Longreach, which is where he and wife Shona can be found most days now.

"It's been great, it got us back to doing things together and out of the sun," Mr Hoolihan said.

As well as being an alternate form of income, it's given them another focus in their lives.

They don't have a clue what rain they've measured so far this year at Elmsdale - the two or three falls, while "decent", have been too far apart to do any good.

They're not sure whether the La Nina forecast is a reason to hope, yet, but say when the drought finally breaks they hope to restock with sheep, which the property hasn't run since 2003.

While screwing down on most capital expenses, the Thomases spent up on cleaning out their dams, before rebates were brought in, and fenced their boundary as part of a cluster, going on to do the internal boundary themselves.

"We all said we couldn't afford to do it but really we couldn't afford not to," Ms Thomas said.

They're also part of a benchmarking group, which they say helps focus their decision-making on aspects they can control.

With a La Nina forecast so strongly they've made the decision to hold onto more sheep than they normally might, but they have no illusions about the tough road still ahead.

"There's a lot we want to do but it's not over 'til it's over," Mr Thomas said.

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