appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

liveArticle

appConfig

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sectionsV2

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

json

In Sydney, the recent clear blue skies and warm winter sunshine have been a tourist operator's dream, but for farmers across Australia's most populous state the dry weather has brought one of the worst droughts in years.

While day after day Sydney's Harbour Bridge has been framed against a cobalt-blue sky, and a few brave souls have sunbathed on the city's beaches, two-thirds of New South Wales has been declared a drought area, with another 17 per cent suffering partial drought.

Sheep and cattle are short on feed and winter crops lie dead or dying in the parched ground.

From the air, much of New South Wales resembles a vast brown and yellow chequerboard, with some areas having received no rain for 18 months.

Farmers say that with the drought coming on top of recent floods and bush fires, they now face financial ruin.

Vikki Giblin, who with her husband runs 4,500 sheep and cattle on a property near the town of Gulargambone, said: 'I've been here 33 years and these are the worst conditions I can remember.

'We've had four inches [102mm] of rain since December last year when we should have had about 21 inches, and we're being told we may not get any more rain until Christmas. We are having to buy in wheat and hay to feed the sheep each day.'

The drought also is affecting wildlife.

Kangaroos, which traditionally are resistant to all but the most severe water shortages, are dying of starvation.  'We have friends who are going out with rifles each evening and shooting kangaroos because they are eating all the grass,' Mrs Giblin said.

'Another farmer found that emus were eating all the grain he was putting down for his sheep. He rounded up a herd of 200 emus, shot them and burned them.'

Reservoirs which have not been empty for years are now bone dry.

The manager of a farm near the Outback town of Bourke, Ian Cole, said that while driving along the wall of a reservoir on his farm he initially thought the ground was moving.

'But when you look more closely it's just a great big mob of grey kangaroos moving across the bottom of the dam floor looking for moisture,' he said.

Farmers are being forced to herd their stock on to roadside verges because their fields have been stripped of every blade of grass. Motorists have been warned to look out for sheep and cattle on highways.

Livestock farmers are appealing to the government to grant emergency financial assistance, including subsidies for the cost of transporting animals and feed.

A government agency has warned that in some districts 50 per cent of winter crops will fail if it does not rain soon.

New South Wales Agriculture Minister Richard Amery has declared the drought the worst since the mid-1990s. 'We are hoping that climatic conditions will improve in the months ahead and hopefully this is as bad as it is going to get, although the indications are not good,' he said.

Lack of rainfall also is affecting areas of Queensland, Western Australia, Victoria and South Australia.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the conditions were in part due to the El Nino weather phenomenon, which was likely to continue and bring more dry weather. The little-understood phenomenon, linked to sea-water temperatures, causes drought in the western Pacific and floods to the east in Latin America.

The bureau's Rob Fawcett said: 'The development of El Nino conditions are partly responsible for the reduction in rainfall. But there are other factors, including rising sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean. It's hard to come up with clear-cut explanations for the drought. Essentially, we don't know what causes it.'



Farmers facing ruin as drought follows floods