Flooding sign
Primarily a dry continent, here the farmers were getting excited about a weather forecast calling for a few millimetres of rain. There are times, however, when heavy rains cause widespread flooding on the broad, flat plains.
Photo: Scott Garvey
Free Range cows
Unfenced "long paddocks" or "stock routes" are a holdover from the days when "drovers" moved stock to market in traditional cattle drives. Farmers can apply to graze their herds on these open ranges during times of poor pasture caused by drought. There is nothing to keep them off the roads in these areas.
Photo: Scott Garvey
Sheep
There are a lot of cattle in this region, but a long period of low prices caused a gradual reduction in the sheep herd. Improving returns means their numbers are beginning to build again.
Photo: Scott Garvey
stock truck
Cattle liners here are more open and require double-deck chutes to load and unload.
Photo: Scott Garvey
Bull bars
Most SUVs and UTEs (a term meaning utility vehicle, which almost every farm uses as its pickup truck) are fitted with "bull bars" to protect a vehicle from damage if it hits a kangaroo. The animals are a major road hazard in this part of the country.
Photo: Scott Garvey
A dead roo
Sadly, I drove past a lot of sights like this kangaroo that had been recently hit by a passing vehicle. Put a deer there and you'd almost feel like you were back in Saskatchewan.
Photo: Scott Garvey
Railway Hotel
Just as on the Prairies in Canada, many small, rural Australian towns have declined, leaving classic old buildings abandoned or unused like the Railway Hotel in Boggabri.
Photo: Scott Garvey
Statement
Proposed developments of an open-pit coal mine and shale gas in the region seem to be widely opposed by local farmers who fear the projects will threaten precious water resources on the Liverpool Plains.
Photo: Scott Garvey
Gate
Almost every farm and rural property has a name, and it's displayed at the front gate. Some entrances are grand, like this one; others not so much.
Photo: Scott Garvey
So far, I’ve only opened the left door of my rental car once, expecting to slide in behind the steering wheel that on this continent is on the opposite side. That means, of course, it’s necessary to drive on the left side of the road here. That’s just one of many differences between Canada and Australia. But for a country where things are so different, for farmers on both continents their circumstances are also remarkably alike.
Many of the same things that are important to Canadian farmers are also on the minds of producers here — such as commodity prices and the weather. But the weather here can be brutally dry, and growing a successful crop every year in many parts of the country is far from assured. The machinery Australian farmers run through their fields is, in some cases, identical. And in many cases not.
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I came to Australia to attend one of the country’s premier machinery shows in the nation’s fertile Liverpool Plains in New South Wales. After that show ended, I thought it was time to head off further into the heartland to get a better feel for what it would be like to live and farm here.
I spent a day on the road with my camera, stopping to talk to farmers whenever the opportunity presented itself. Here are just bits of what I saw.
For as much as the rural activities, infrastructure, problems and general lifestyles seem almost the same, the sights, as you’ll see, aren’t all that familiar. That’s what hits you about this country, we’re so much alike, but yet we’re so different.
