Calls for improved drought relief schemes are nothing new.
Amidst shocking losses in 1935 - the North Queensland Register was reporting at the end of May that 10,000 more sheep were being spelled at Emerald before continuing their train journey east - grazing organisations were discussing ways in which the Labor state government could help.
At Charleville, the Warrego Graziers executive was telling the Premier at the time that “the greatest evil in the field of taxation applied to the grazing industry”.
A farmer or sugar grower or any dairyman could carry forward their losses in any one year for five years whereas a grazier could only carry forward one thousand pounds.
“As one speaker pointed out the losses are the graziers’ own but the profits are the taxgatherers.”
The writer said that unless governments tackled this question and placed graziers on the same footing as other taxpayers it was quite likely they would refuse to pay.
“There is not much use the government giving concessions in the way of freight or rentals as this is not a concession in so far as it will only make more money for the Government to take away again from the grazier,” the story continued. “What the grazier wants is some form of relief that will make his overdraft smaller and give him a chance to come off the dole.”
Fodder finance
Further south a “representative gathering” of farmers of the west Moreton district gathered to talk about ways that the high cost of keeping stock alive in times of drought could be reduced by a national plan of fodder conservation.
Chairman WA Fielding said West Moreton and other coastal districts were capable of producing unlimited quantities of fodder, which in good seasons, “could be conserved for use by westerners when a drought descended on their country”.
Agriculture Minister and Member for Barcoo, Frank Bulcock was in attendance at this meeting and said that to date, it hadn’t been approached from the right angle.
“Every scheme so far advanced provided for conserving fodder in times of plenty for use in years of drought,” he said. “The great difficulty was finance.”
He asked if an actuarial approach (using statistics to assess insurance risks) was possible, and added that “much good” would be accomplished if a plan could be devised.
Feed programs
Meanwhile, the Terrick Terrick aggregation at Blackall, which carried an average 104,800 sheep in 1935, told a Land Court sitting that it had 38,000 sheep on agistment and 20,000 remaining on the properties, 10,400 of which were being handfed.
The court also heard that in some seasons, as many as 8000 kangaroos had been destroyed on the holdings.
The management at Isis Downs contended that he was paying two thousand pounds a month on fodder and its cost was increasing.
The company had lost 89,212 sheep over a 10-year period.