OWNING a car wash in Mildura must be good business.
You couldn’t count how many dust storms have been whipped up over the drought-stricken Millewa and swept across town in the past few months.
And this week has been particularly horrendous.
It’s not just a constant battle to keep the car clean, it’s our washing, our pools, our back patios, our windows, the list goes on.
But if you think we’ve had it tough living in and around Mildura, spare a thought for those living out in the Millewa.
Thousands of hectares of what is typically crop now resembles a bone-dry and very red dust bowl.
They are used to trying conditions out there, but right now it is as bad as it gets.
Not only are there no crops, there is no feed for stock, and if the drought conditions don’t change in the next year, many will be forced to walk off the land.
That is bad news for all of us.
While some may hold the view that there are two types of farmers — rich or very rich — the plight of those out in the Millewa or out in far west NSW can’t be underestimated.
Some of these farmers invest hundreds of thousands each year to seed crops. But for the past two years those crops have failed due to a lack of rain. Zero return on that sort of investment takes an enormous toll — financially and emotionally.
Just how dire the situation is out in the Millewa was highlighted on the front page of Sunraysia Daily on August 31.
Senior reporter Allan Murphy took a drive to meet quietly suffering local farmers, who explained their current plight, and the issue was thrust into the national spotlight.
That story explained how the worst drought since the 1940s has many Millewa farmers on the brink of collapse and only a return on next season’s crop will keep them afloat.
Some no longer have the capacity to borrow against their property value and they have stopped spending money that isn’t there.
At least one in 10 farming properties across the Millewa plains is on the market.
On the Monday after that article appeared, Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes made an unannounced visit to the region to see the situation first-hand.
Since then, Premier Daniel Andrews has also visited the drought-stricken Millewa and announced emergency relief funding.
The Federal Government has also sat up and taken more notice.
Sunraysia Daily has visited a number of struggling farmers in the weeks and months since, ensuring their voices are heard.
This week, reporter Brooke Littlewood and photographer Ben Gross made the journey to meet beef farmers who were preparing to sell a quarter of their stock.
They are at the end of their tether.
There has been virtually no rain and any growth that has come up through the ground after a shower has been cut up by the incessant winds.
While our reporter and photographer were out on the barren property talking to the farmers this week, the wind blew up, causing yet another dust storm.
They returned to the office covered in red dirt, having experienced first-hand just how hellish the conditions can get out there.
As a community, we must do all we can to support our local farmers through this drought.
Fortunately, Sunraysia residents have long understood that. To see the charitable efforts some locals have been making to help out our local farmers recently is heartening.
The bottom line is, if farmers in the Millewa walk off the land, we all lose.
It will not only hurt the local economy, but without crops nothing will stop that traditionally fertile red soil turning into dust clouds when the wind hits, as is the case now.
We will need more car washes.
