Drought-stricken farmers in tears as SA records driest year in history

South Australian farmers have struggled through the driest year in the books, and it’s pushed them to the brink. See the map of the worst hit areas.

Stoic farmers are breaking down in tears and families are on the brink of running out of house water as much of the state’s prime agricultural land is stuck in the driest 12-months on record.

Peak farming bodies have declared the entire state in drought and say a continued lack of rain would be catastrophic for the economy and force farmers from the land.

Even farmers in traditionally drought-proof areas are feeling the pinch as dams dry up and parched topsoil turns into a dust cloud at the slightest wind.

Bureau of Meteorology rain records show most of the Yorke Peninsula, Mid North and Eyre Peninsula are in the midst of an unprecedented dry spell, as are parts of Kangaroo Island, the Fleurieu Peninsula, Coorong and upper South-East, Fleurieu Peninsula, Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley.

Mount Compass dairy farmer and former parliamentarian Rob Brokenshire, 68, said this was the worst drought he had seen on the Fleurieu Peninsula and Adelaide Hills.

“No-one has missed out on this drought - it’s hit everybody,” Mr Brokenshire, president of SA Dairy Farmers Association, said.

“Dry land in most areas now looks like a desert and the dams are dry in a lot of cases. As a farmer said to me yesterday, he was down in the upper South-East and he was driving along the road and he said the paddock was so bare you could see a mouse running across it.

“We’re passed the green drought now, and into absolute drought - it’s no use denying it. That’s what it is.”

South Australian rain figures from February 2024 to January 2025

South Australian rainfall figures, February 2024 to January 2025

Just down the road from Mr Brokenshire, siblings Chelsea Donhardt, 35 and her brothers Jake and Brad Connor, 32 and Brad, 26, are fourth generation farmers at Nangkita Dairies.

The family hope Ms Donhardt’s daughters Jade, 6, and Zoey, 3, might one day be part of a fifth generation on the properties but they say this year’s drought had rocked them and other farmers in the region.

The Connors usually rely on homegrown pastures to feed their 800 cows but have had to fork out $500,000 on hay and silage in the past 12 months to keep the herd alive.

“Our seasons are very predictable and very usually very mild,” Jake Connor said.

“We don’t get extreme floods. We don’t get extreme heat. Yeah. We’re usually what’s considered a reliable region. And I guess the surprise out of what’s happened over the last been 18 months... has really, really hurt.

The drought has played havoc with farmers’ mental health. Several started crying before leaving the room at a national sheep conference at Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills this week after admitting they were struggling to cope.

Anthony Hurst at his farm in the South East. Picture: Ben Clark

Lucindale district cattle and sheep producer Anthony Hurst said it was difficult to watch fellow farmers break down over financial concerns caused by the ongoing lack of rain.

“That’s stuff that puts a tear in the eye,” he said. “It hurts when you see fellow breeders break down like that and say: ‘I’m suffering, I’ve admitted it and I’ve gone and got help’.

“We had guys stand up and say that they suffer from depression but have hidden it... that the last couple of years have taken a toll. Those guys came out of the closet, so to speak, and admitted it, and that’s something I’ve never seen in my lifetime.”

Mr Hurst is a board member at Livestock SA, which is running barbecues around the state to bring farming families together to talk through their issues.

“We can see the writing on the wall,” he said. “It might seem like bugger all putting a barbecue and a few beers on, but we’ve had them scattered all around the state and we’ve had record attendance.”

Belle Baker and Patrick O’Driscoll have sold all of their sheep and cattle from their small farm at Currency Creek and were within days of being forced to leave home because their 100,000-litre house tank was nearly dry.

Ben Richie on his parched farm at Appila. Picture: Ben Clark

“We have a bore and that is fine for watering our gardens and keeping the troughs full but we have run out of rainwater and we were two days off having to actually leave home before I could get any water delivered,” she said.

Ms Baker rang four different water carting companies before finding one able to deliver before her family ran out of water.

“It’s not that we are silly and dumb and need to put in bigger, better water tanks,” she said. “It’s not that at all. It literally has not rained.”

Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie said the lack of water in many Hills and Fleurieu homes that relied on tanks for their house water was an emergency and the wait time for water carters to deliver had blown out from three weeks to more than two months.

The state’s Mid-North has been at the epicentre of the drought. The size of Ben Richie’s sheep flock on his Appila property has shrunk by more than half from 1350 to 520 and he managed to salvage only a “very small amount” of seed from 900 hectares of crop he planted last year.

He’ll have more sheep to feed in the next few days after he took a gamble on letting in the rams in October in the hope of summer rains.

“The way November shaped (his property received 92 millimetres in two storms) I thought, hell, I’ve done the right thing,” he said of the decision to introduce rams to the ewes. “It hasn’t rained since.”

Andrew Kitto at his farm near Gladstone. Picture: Ben Clark

“Everyone’s sick of the dry. We’re all just saying how dry it is and any time there’s a bit of wind there is dust blowing everywhere. We’re all just thinking the same thing - that every day is closer to rain.”

Gladstone farmer and contract harvester Andrew Kitto said the drought was starting to affect regional towns, especially farm machinery businesses.

“They’re going out and there’s no hope of selling anything,” he said. “The salesman now is really only the parts delivery person. The farmers have just tightened up on all of their spending.”

Originally published as Drought-stricken farmers in tears as SA records driest year in history