In the 40 years he’s spent farming Peter Williams has never seen the land this dry

This Hills farmer has never seen anything like it: washing his cups with bottled drinking water to remove the salty taste because his dams are running dry.

Peter Williams is accustomed to the water in his Mt Torrens home being a bit brackish.

The house relies on a dam to supplement tank water and when the dam gets low, the water can get salty.

He and his partner Caroline Sanders have long relied on buying bottled water for their drinks but things are that bad this year, he reckons he might as well have sea water coming out of his taps.

“When you wash the dishes, if you’re going to have a cup of coffee, you’ve got to rinse it with the drinking water first otherwise you can taste the salt on the front of the cup,” he said.

Mr Williams, 68, is one of nine farmers called Peter The Advertiser has spoken to for our For Pete’s Sake campaign, which aims to raise awareness of their plight for another Peter who works on North Tce in the city. The campaign is calling on the government to substantially increase the $18m drought support package announced in November.

Farmer Peter Williams standing in an empty dam, on his property in Mount Torrens. Picture: Ben Clark

Mr Williams has been a farm manager for 40 years at a stud property between Mt Torrens and Birdwood and has about 100 breeding ewes of his own on land that he leases off his boss.

Like most farmers around the state, especially in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula, Mr Williams reckons he’s never seen the land this dry before.

“The water situation is dire at the moment – we actually pulled a sheep out of a dry dam the other day,” he said.

“It was the first time ever. I’ve been working here for 40 years and I’ve never seen it this bad.”

“We’ve actually killed I don’t know how many plants in the gardens because of the water this year.

“We’ve tried growing a few veggies in pots and things and some of them come good – after a few weeks of having the salt water, they must adapt to it – and others just go yellow and say no thanks.”

Mr Williams, the long-term manager of Kreeside Poll Dorset Stud for owner Shirley Willison, is one of more than 70,000 people employed in the farming sector in South Australia.

He’s worried about the future of farming in the state and the drought means he has to dig deep into his pockets to feed sheep that would normally graze comfortably in paddocks.

Mr Williams said he was tired of watching the State Government splash money on sporting venues, while farmers battled through the worst drought on record and Mr Malinauskas’s response would determine his vote at next year’s state election.

“He (Premier Peter Malinauskas) needs to help the farmers in some way,” he said.

“If we don’t get rain what are we going to do with the water for livestock? And if people sell off all their livestock then they’ve got no livelihood.”

Acting Premier Susan Close said the government had opened emergency water collection points in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula and six extra water carting companies had registered to help supply off-grid properties who had to buy water for the first time in decades.

Opposition spokeswoman Nicola Centofanti said the government needed to act before budget time to help the majority of producers.

“It’s extremely sad that despite contributing billions in GDP annually and providing food for the people of South Australia and the world, the Malinauskas Government is not offering a hand up to our hard working farmers,” she said.

“By budget time, without significant rainfall, it will be too late for many farmers.”

Originally published as In the 40 years he’s spent farming Peter Williams has never seen the land this dry