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26
still have the cook and the kids." Their
youngest child was only ten days old
when the flood hit.
One of the smaller cotton farmers
lost 500 of his 550 acres. A month later
his machinery was still standing in a
lake of water, and he had no way of
knowing if it could be repaired econom–
ically enough to make another year's
planting worth the investment.
In the Narrabri region a baby fell off
a veranda and was drowned. A 21-year–
old mother died in northern Queens–
land in an unsuccessful attempt to save
her l1-n;10nth-old son when her hus–
band's car stalled on a flooded causeway.
Distraught evacuees related stories of
whole families being trapped for a time
in their flooded homes. A Victorian
woman and her three children drowned
right in their own house.
The airstrip at Narrabri and Nichol–
son's Air Service Strip at Wee Waa
were coostaotly in use as bases for emer–
gency and rescue operations. All avail–
able aircraft were pressed into service,
from giant R.A.A.F. Hercules trans–
ports to helicopters and light prívate
planes. Flying low, the pilots dropped
food in specially designed air-drop
packages to isolated farmhouses and
encamped families.
Miraculously enough, the final death
toll was put at only 26.
Animal Suffering
Before the fiood there were nearly 3
million sheep
in
the combined Namoi
and Walgett Shires of New South
Wales and well over 100,000 head of
cattle. Driving through the gutted roads
in the areas of the Namoi Valley, our
correspondents were struck by the stench
of decaying animal carcasses and rotting
vegetation.
Of the 8 million acres of prime
cotton, wheat, and pasture lands in the
Shires of Namoi and Walgett, over
1,400 square miles were inundated
when the Namoi, Gwydir, Mclntyre
and other rivers overfiowed their banks
after five straight days of rain.
A stock check is being made through–
out the three states to determine how
many animals were drowned or starved
to death. The only reports received so
far by government agronomists have
beeo of individual grazers virtually
The
PLAIN TRUTH
wiped out - a typical report might
read: "2,500 sheep lost, 2,800 sheep
drowned, 14,000 sheep and lambs
dead."
The most concentrated damage was
wrought in north central New South
Wales where twenty river systems over–
flowed to create a virtual lake larger
than the American state of Rhode Island.
Cotton - 100,000-Bale Crop
Awash
The loss of nearly 80 percent of the
cotton crop in tbe Wee Waa area of the
Namoi Valley amounts to a minor
national tragedy, especially since bad
weather had substantially reduced last
year's yield.
Except for a brief period during the
American Civil War when American
cotton was not available for the
European market, Australia had not pro–
duced enough cotton even for domestic
use. Then a group of about forty
American growers began migrating from
the San Joaquín Valley in California
during 1961 . They pioneered a new area
and brought with them tl1e methods of
production and the capital necessary to
begin cotton fanning in the valley on a
massive scale.
The first cotton grown in the Namoi
was 60 acres planted in 1961 by Paul
Kahl and Frank Hadley from Merced,
California.
With a crew of forty, hundreds of
thousands of dollars' worth of farm
machinery, vehicles and communications
gear, Kahl and Hadley now farm 3,000
of the 54,000 acres of cotton in the
region. With the other Californians
and, of course, many Australians who
were quick to pick up the new methods,
these migrants revolutionized the grow–
ing techniques of the industry. The
nation's cotton output increased from
11,800 bales a year in 1960 to an
expected 150,000 in 1971 (100,000 of
these were to come from the Namoi
Valley alone).
While their relatives in southern
California were riding out an earth–
quake, these former San Joaquín Valley
farmers were fighting for survival in a
different kind of natural disaster - and
it has cost them more than most earth–
quakes could have.
The N.S.W. Department of Agricul-
May 1971
ture made an early estímate that the total
crop loss for the region would be 75,·
000 bales - three-quarters of the
Namoi crop - valued at approximately
$12 million. Another 3-million-dollar
loss in property, trngation channels,
pumps, and farm machinery has been
estimated so far.
One of the tragic consequences of the
flood is the loss of the export market -
the fruit of three years of hard work in
the development of an Asían outlet
for the country's pre-ilood surplus
production. The growers simply will
not be able to supply their hard-won
foreign market. Australia will even
have to import as much as 50 to 60
thousand bales to meet domestic needs.
Paul Kahl, who is also Chairman of
the Namoi Cotton Cooperative, told us
that he and his partners have lost their
total crop. Their Josses in pump
engines, machinery, irrigation channels,
land erosion and silting would also be
substantial.
Another Californian, Harold Freet
from McFarland, former Chairman of
the Tax and Legislative Committee for
the Kern County Farro Bureau, carne to
the Namoi in 1963, just in time to lose
his first crop to tbe 1964 flood . He esti–
mates his present losses will be 60-70%
on the 2,100 acres planted to cotton on
his 6,000 acres. When asked how the
fiood had left him linancially, he
replied, "l'm no worse off than when I
carne."
AJso from McFarland is Jerry Davis,
who ís managing his family's 4,000-acre
property, Calcot, Pty. Ltd., established
in 1963. A member of the Board of
Directors of the Namoi Co-op, he carne
last year to trade places with other fam·
ily members who still farm 2,100 acres
in Kern County. A full 90 percent of
his crop has been reduced to brown
twigs decorated with a few empty bolls.
Meanwhile, 9 cotton pickers with a
total value of a quarter of a million dol–
lars stand idle in the mud waiting for
next year.
Today, the mop-up goes on, the
sheep and cattle count contínues and the
farmers wonder when the right balance
will come - rain in its due season for
crop and pasture growth and enough
sunshine to make the harvest.
o