Basic HTML Version
Again GRIPS Au
Farmers and rural observers now admit: " The present
agricultura/ problems are worse than the worst
of
the
depression of the 1930's." To understand iust how serious the
drought really is, read this article by The PLAIN TRUTH's
Austro/ion Editorial Staff.
Sydncy, Australia
Á
US1'RA
I.IA'S
farmlands are now in
.fl
tieep
trouble! And for a
wtriety
of reasons.
A mere
five years
after the last
crippling drought in the samc general
arca, thousands of square miles of east–
ern Australia's finest agricultura! lands
are
rtgrtin
reeling before a s<.:rious ncw
onslaught of drought! Drought which
federal Parliamentarian Mr. R.
J.
D.
Hunt Iikened to a "black plague"
spreading southwards from Queensland.
To assess the problem firsthand,
The
PLAIN TRUTH sent correspondents on a
2,000-mile fact-finding tour through the
drought arca. Their findings confirm
that a pall of loss and discouragemcnt is
settling over ru ral eastern Australia.
..
Wheat Losscs
Australia is somctimes jokingly called
"a strip of greencry surrounding the
largest desert in the world."
This shrewd observation has its basis
in fact. Australia is largcly one giant
desert. Yet, its thin ribbon of green still
makes the nation one of the world's
let~din
g
agricu
1
tural producers.
At Chinchilla, Queensland, in this
green strip where in normal times sorne
of the world's finest hard wheat is
grown, the
tt·orsl dro11ght ever
has
drastically limited sowing. The pittance
that was planted did little more than
cast a dull green hue over the brown
earth. The wheat which did come to
maturity is of doubtful guality.
The local Shire Council Chauman at
Chinchill,t and the Grain Growers'
Association Chairman for the area
report there has not been a year with an
"t~t•errtge"
rainfall for the past 12 to 15
ycars. Add to that the huge debt burden
of farmcrs and graziers in the district,
the stagnating cconomy in local towns
and the drift of population, especially
the younger generation, away from the
country.
Morale in Chinchilla is low. Local
officials freely expressed that the current
drought and contemporary economic
problems are causing greater rural suf–
fering even than the Great Depression
during thc 1930's.
An official of Queensland's Depart–
ment of Primary Industry said that of
the possible State total of approximately
1.6 million acres, only about 300,000
acres of whcat -
leu than
20
percenl
of
the /Otrt!
-
have beco sown.
In New South Wales, a total of 6
mil lion acres has been sown this year,
against 9 mi llion last season. But as the
drought continues to expand south–
wards, conditions
will
deteriorate.
Already, the probable loss of wheat is
officially predicted to be $40 million.
Rain is urgently needed O\'er the
entÍ/·e
t:astcrn wheat belt
an arca
which in normal years produces about
40 percent of the national wheat yield.
Sheep Losses
Yet wheat is hardly the only agricul–
tural commodity languishing in thc
"big dry."
T he New South Wales Minister for
Amba,.odor
Coll•s•
Photor
Boomooroo Station, Queensland,
in the grip of drought. LEFT: a
5-million-gallon reservoir bone
dry. RIGHT: Some of the millions
of dead sheep.