In February of 2019, Alistair Anderson was like many graziers in north-west Queensland.
His attention shifted from feeding cattle during a drought to counting the losses, as half his herd died following a monsoonal trough.
He lost about 350 head on his property south of Hughenden.
“They died with their bellies full. It was just cold after the rain. I think pneumonia probably,” Mr Anderson said.
“It was devastating after all that hard work.”
Four years on, as the 81-year-old prepares to transition the 37,000-hectare cattle station to his son Stephen, the property is in the best condition he has seen it in 12 years.
He says it is all thanks to good rain last year and a good start to the wet season.
“We had 600 cows and we ended up with 250. So we built up from that and we’re back to 600 females again now,” he said.
It is estimated that nearly half a million stock were lost across the north-west region during 2019’s weather event.
“We had 10 years of drought,” Mr Anderson said,
“Last year was a good rain year. On this country, an inch under that dry topsoil is nearly just mud.
“We have got feed for 12 months here already. We are sailing pretty well.”
The dams might not be full, but the grass is green, and for the first time in a long time, Mr Anderson can turn his attention away from feeding his cattle and allow them to graze.
He said Mitchell grass, a species that graziers rely heavily on, was finally returning to the area after several seasons of being absent.
He’s hopeful it will flourish again after weather conditions stymied its growth in recent years.
“It is gradually coming back bit by bit,” he said.
“The rain hasn’t been heavy rain, but it has kept it green and let it seed. The next round of rain will bring some more seedlings up and gradually thicken up.”
Reminders of the drought still loom large on the property.
Around the family home, most of the trees Mr Anderson has planted have perished.
Carcasses of cattle, the “victims of drought”, lay in paddocks metres away from watering troughs where healthy, fat cattle drink.
“The narrow league box trees, they’re all gone,” Mr Anderson said.
“Just no water getting down to the roots and there was no lawn. That all went.”
Since 1968, when he first started running the property, Mr Anderson said he had experienced several droughts.
“It’ll come again. You have just got to have a few dollars in the bank and you can handle it,” he said.
Mr Anderson said while his property was looking good, with consistent pasture growth, some farmers not too far away were still waiting for the rain.
“I feel for them. I have been there, but hopefully the monsoon will move back,” he said.
“We just need our cyclones to come down to the Gulf and we will be right. That’s when we get the heavy rain.
“My only wish is that everybody gets the rain. I’d like everybody to be feeling the way I am now.”
Not green everywhere
Flinders Shire Council Mayor Jane McNamara said there had been “good, beneficial rain” across much of the region.
“There are some areas that are still light on, and even ourselves, we’ve got good grass but we would really like some rain,” Ms McNamara said.
“I think what has happened in the last 12 months in particular is that cattle prices have been good, and people have really been able to cement a good base back into their businesses after the 10 years of drought that we’ve had.”
She said while many properties had received good rain, it could be patchy and many had missed out.
As of December 2022, there were still three local government areas fully drought declared and two local government areas partly declared.
“Just having green grass around lifts everybody’s spirits, so mentally, I think everybody is in a much better place,” she said.
“When you can go out and see the green grass, you know, the birds chirping and everything else is good, you see a good future.”
Hoping for a good decade
Jacqueline Curley, from Cloncurry, west of Mount Isa, said her cattle station had received 153 millimetres of rain since the beginning of January.
“I always say it goes in decades. You will have a decade of good years, [then] you have a decade of bad years. We’ve just had our decade of bad years,” Ms Curley said.
(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
“The last year, we had a year similar to … 1973 where it rained practically every month. Storm rain [fell] into a really good season in 74.
“We are having a similar scenario this year where we have had lead-up storms going into good storm rain. That is about as good as you can expect.”
Mrs Curley said there were plenty of smiling faces and “a lot of rocks rolling off shoulders” from graziers and people on the land.
She said buying and carting feed for livestock in drought conditions was a constant stress for graziers.
“When you get good rainfall, you can relax and life is much more pleasant,” she said.
She said since the flood event which killed about half their herd, they have been building their numbers back up, but had to agist livestock to other properties due to the dry conditions.
“Once you go through an event like that, you will never forget it,” she said.
“It leaves an indelible mark on you … it is a process of recovery, no different to any other grief you might go through.”
