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tralia!
Agriculture Mr. G. R. Crawford
revealed that unofficial sources estímate
sheep deaths
in his State alone to be at
2Y2
milliotz
at the time of writing. (In
the 1965 drought the State lost 11 mil–
lion sheep.)
Meanwhile sheep population in
Queensland is down 3 million from last
year.
The 32,000 acres of Boomooroo Sta–
tion ( ranch) west of Longreach, Queens–
land, normally carry eight to nine
thousand sheep. Now only 900 remain.
The wifc of the owner of Boomooroo
explained that between three and four
thousand of their sheep were relocatcd
in adjoining scrub country where, hope–
fully, they will "last till mid-December."
At Boomooroo one sees the usual dry
dams and hard, baked earth where car–
casses of starved sheep have long since
replaced greenery. Of the 3000 sheep
taken in for shearing, only 1200 had
the strength
to
emerge alive from the
shearing sheds.
Growing Farm Debts
The economíc plight of farmers is a
serious one. Australia's Minister for
Primary Industry
Mr.
J. D. Anthony
said that in the five years to July last
year, gross rural indebtedness
rose from
$1,152
milliot1 to
$1,972
mil/ion.
He
added, "What is even more significant
is tbat net rural indebtedness rose from
$159 million to $1,037 million in the
same period."
These fig11res do not incl11de the eco–
nomic havoc wro11ght
by
this ;ear's
dro11ght!
Presently between 10 and 15 percent
of farmers in the southern drought area
are no longer credit worthy. With a
wheat failure,
a further 20
to
30 pemmt