From flooding to droughts, rallies and virulent virusus, 2024 had it all

This year Australian farmers were hit with viruses, worsening roads, a CFA stripped of funding and even a rally in Canberra.

When rain began in January and didn’t abate for weeks in parts of southeast Australia, it was met with confusion.

The Bureau of Meteorology had forecast a El Nino event, but hot and dry conditions never materialised and instead the new year was met with a deluge and flooding across many Victorian regions. Parts of the state received as much rain in a month as they ordinarily would in a year.

While the BoM’s prediction has since been met with rebuke across agricultural commodities – with many destocking at low prices off the back of the forecast – other parts of western Victoria and into South Australia have recorded one of their driest years on record.

The green drought that has plagued southwestern Victoria and parts of the Wimmera has shown no signs of abating.

The state’s roads have continued to deteriorate, largely in step with the diminishing pool of funding dedicated to their upkeep. In May, The Weekly Times reported the Allan Government had cut regional road resurfacing work by more than 90 per cent.

The state’s CFA has met a similar fate this year, with the Victorian government stripping $70m to fund other emergency agencies.

Avian influenza hit Australian shores in May. Fortunately it wasn’t the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain devastating bird populations overseas, but strains of H7 high pathogenicity avian influenza, which was first detected in Meredith in Central Victoria.

Separate strains were also detected in NSW and in the ACT. The outbreaks led to the destruction of at least two millions birds while the compensation cost is estimated to reach $40 million.

Queensland Senator Murray Watt was moved from the agriculture to the employment and industrial relations portfolio in July. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Albanese Government has been on the nose within the farming sector for some time, but tensions escalated in May when then Agriculture Minister Murray Watt travelled to Perth to announce the live export of sheep by sea would end on May 1, 2028.

His standing within the Labor caucus however was stronger than ever, leading to his promotion to the employment and industrial relations portfolio, while Tasmanian Julie Collins filled his vacancy.

The firming up of Labor’s long-held policy on live exports promoted WA-based lobby group Keep the Sheep to organise a rally at the steps of Parliament House in protest in September.

In an unusual move, the rally was endorsed by the National Farmers’ Federation, which used the event as a “call to action” over the federal government’s lack of an ear to the concerns of the industry.

Thousands were expected to attend the rally, but the numbers of those who made the long journey was more likely in their hundreds.

Perhaps next year, with a federal election on the horizon and votes at stake, the farmers’ voice might be listened to more closely.