Waterhole dry for first time in living memory

RAINFALL of 11mm might give sheep a pick up but not enough for cattle.

The best of the grass on a droughted property west of Warwick. Picture: Gerard Walsh

WHAT a week on the weather front.

There was 11.4mm rain in the Glennie Heights area in Warwick on Friday and then 1mm Sunday night but it is hard to even see the green shoots in the grass.

You could call that sheep rain - the grass will only grow enough for a sheep pick and not long enough for cattle.

Stanthorpe resident Stewart Brett spoke about this column at the Warwick Pistol Club come-and-try day on Sunday and told me that the kangaroo waterhole at Cottonvale was dry for the first time since the days of Cobb and Co.

Knowledge was passed down the generations about a waterhole that was originally part of Maryland station and a source of permanent water.

But it has been dry for five or six weeks.

For the first time in my life, I am looking at cultivation paddocks and wondering if they are ploughed or full of dead grass. The paddocks look the same whether ploughed or not.

I have always said it has rained most times we have got into real trouble out on the farm but not this time.

We are like the owners of 2000-odd cattle each Tuesday in Warwick - it is time to meet the market.

Our calves are in good condition but they won't stay that way for long and the price per kilogram is dropping each week.

I have to sell something to pay the $417 I was fined a couple of weeks ago for having the ute unregistered for 12 days.

It will be interesting to see how many calves are needed to pay the fine.

Hopefully I have missed out on a ticket for speeding down Guy St in Warwick about a month ago. I reckon I was over the 50km/h limit.

Surely the ticket would have come by now. As someone said, I better stop talking about the possibility. I look like I am asking for a fine.

Originally published as Waterhole dry for first time in living memory