Some rain finally arrives, but it’s not enough for our farmers — others are still waiting
THE Lampe family scrambled to pack up their campfire dinner on Friday after seeing lightning in the horizon and thought rain was imminent. But the farming family didn’t feel a speck. They described their property is the driest its been in living memory.
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THE Lampe family scrambled to pack up their campfire dinner on Friday night when a dazzling display of lightning on the horizon seemed certain to douse the flames and drench the kids.
Hail pelted down in Narrabri’s main street, which sent diners ducking for cover, but 15 minutes’ drive north the Lampes begrudgingly unpacked their picnic when they didn’t feel a single speck of rain.
“Ten years ago we would have got drenched for sure but these days the storm clouds that brew up don’t bring any rain, which is a real worry,” farmer Tom Lampe said.
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Between 20 to 50mm of rain was forecast to blanket the barren North West Slopes and Plains and the Central West regions yesterday but the rainfall was uneven and underwhelming. By late yesterday afternoon, Bourke had clocked the highest rainfall total with a modest 17mm thanks to an isolated thunderstorm, followed by Inverell with 16mm. It was hoped rain would increase on Saturday night.
After waiting all day for a downpour, a sprinkle of rain was only just heavy enough for the Lampe kids Sophia, 11, Harriet, 9, Camilla, 7, Zara, 4, and Fred, 1, to don their raincoats.
Brooding clouds blanketed the Narrabri sky but mum Nikki, 38, didn’t bother calling them inside or phoning ahead to see if the netball fixtures had been called off.
At the time of going to print, Bourke had clocked the highest rainfall total with a modest 17mm thanks to an isolated thunderstorm, followed by Inverell where steady showers all day amounted to 16mm.
“We have become a bit immune to the forecasts but since you’re so desperate you think ‘it has to happen’ and you start building hope,” Mrs Lampe said. “When (the rain) doesn’t come, it brings you crashing back down to Earth. If the rain doesn’t come when the forecasters say it’s a certainty, you wonder when it will ever rain.”
As the prolonged drought worsens, her commitment to the country is waning. “I’m happy but there have been moments of late when I wonder ‘why we are here? Are there other options?’,” she said.
Mr Lampe’s 4047ha property in Narrabri, south of Moree, is the driest it’s been in living memory.
He’s tipped 114mm out of the rain gauge this year, which is a sixth of the average annual rainfall and less than half the amount of rain that fell in the worst year ever, 1994.
The fourth-generation farmer has been contending with below-average rainfall for five of the past 10 years, since he took over from his father Mark who died suddenly of undiagnosed cancer.
The King’s School and Sydney University-educated farmer has dispensed with old farming textbooks as he adjusts to the prolonged dry spell, but even with the most technologically advanced techniques, farming relies on rain.
He’s eked out efficiency savings by direct drilling seed into the ground rather than ploughing and the livestock are given clean bore water to drink, which keeps them in better health than muddy dam water. Instead of selling the meagre crops harvested in the past five years, most of what’s grown is kept to feed 1000 cattle and 3000 sheep.
“We’ve never seen something like this before.” he said.