My Hurting Country

Back from the Easter Break. I travelled back to my home country in the Riverina. We have been farmers in the area since the 1850's. It was a terrible shock. Trees that have been familiar friends since I was a child are dead and dying. Dust storms, the scourge of the 1930's are back, because the irrigation areas out around Finley and Deniliquin are gone. You can smell the dust in the air and the sunsets were blood red. My Grandfather would start sowing the years wheat crop on the 1st of March without fail, knowing the rains would come. I drove hundreds of kilometres around my district and did not see a single plowed paddock. The paddocks were bare and desolate, and rarely did I see any stock. If I did they were poor and skinny. Not in my families recorded memory have things been so bad. My cousin did ring last night to say they got some rain after I left and everyone is madly sowing wheat, hoping for follow up rain in the next few weeks to try and salvage something of the season. I got back to hear everyone complaining about the rain here on the North Coast. Please never complain about rain.