When The Drought Breaks

Although it may be a bit premature to declare the drought broken, my trip to Tamworth (NSW) this morning was greeted by a steady soaking rain. Hopefully it is a sign that the current drought  is breaking and maybe give our farmers some hope that 2010 will be a year when the stock is fattened and the headers are are full.

But, I think I'll just let Henry Lawson put my pictures into words;  

Rain In The Mountains

The valley is full of misty cloud, 

It's tinted beauty drowning,

The Eucalypti roar aloud,

The mountain fronts are frowning.

The mist is hanging like a pall,

From many granite ledges,

And many a little waterfall,

Starts o'er the valley's edges.

The sky is of a leaden grey

Save for where the north is surly,

The driven daylight speeds away,

And the night comes o'er us early.

But, love, the rain will pass full soon,

Far sooner than my sorrow,

And in a golden afternoon,

The sun may set tomorrow.

- Henry Lawson (1889)

  

Before The Drought

Sometimes it's hard to remember that there was was a time when Australia wasn't in drought, when rain fell at regular intervals & the country side around the Hunter Valley, could at times, rival the verdant lushness of the Emerald Isle.


I was reminded of this during last weekends trip to Tamworth, a trip that bought home the stark reality that a lot of country is once again gripped in another vicious drought. Instead of lush fields & full dams the countryside was brown, dry & the dams were just heat cracked depressions in lifeless paddocks. As you moved through coal fields north of Maitland the countryside looked worse, with enormous open cut coal mines scouring the once productive farmland & air hazy from the rising coal dust suspended in the rising heat.


So with this in mind I went back into my old collection of photographs & located a sample that highlights the beauty of the area when rainfall was sufficient enough keep the dams full & the fields lush. The views are from the Bulahdelah & Gresford districts & were taken around 2006 -07, before the current drought wreaked its terrible vengeance.


I do hope to get up into the country in the near future to secure a photographic record of how droughts can wreak terrible damage on our wonderful country.