Barcoo and eastern Barcaldine shires declared drought free for first time since 2013

It is the first time since 2013 that the shire, which covers towns such as Windorah, Jundah and Stonehenge, has been out of drought and that the overall area of the state impacted by drought has dropped below 30 per cent.

Also declared drought free for the first time in 10 years was the eastern part of the Barcaldine local government area, while the Rockhampton, Central Highlands and Woorabinda shires have been considered drought free for the first time since 2019.

Barcoo shire mayor Sally O'Neil said that while she hadn't had a chance to discuss the news with locals, she was sure it would be welcomed.

"The area certainly is looking like it's not in drought," Cr O'Neil said.

"Some places around here have measured up to 280 millimetres of rainfall already this year, which when you consider our average annual rainfall is about 300mm is really quite amazing.

"People are saying the river hasn't stopped running for almost two years thanks to all the wet weather we've had, which is just terrific."

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Cr O'Neil said the good start to the year was likely to have a positive impact on the region's agricultural sector.

"Property values are up and commodity prices are up as well, so everything is looking good, that's for sure," she said.

"That of course has a flow-on affect into the larger community, which is really positive as well."

State Agricultural Industry Development, Fisheries and Rural Communities Minister Mark Furner said the changes would come into affect from March 1.

"This is great news for primary producers in now drought-free regions of Queensland," Mr Furner said.

"Some of our farmers have done it tough during a long drought, so increased rainfall over the past six months has been welcome relief."

Mr Furner said Local Drought Committees would still monitor pasture recovery in drought-affected areas as the end of the wet season approaches.

"Primary producers in drought-revoked areas can access freight subsidies for restocking and returning from agistment under the Drought Relief Assistance Scheme (DRAS)," he said.

"If a producer believes they are still experiencing difficult conditions in a council area that is no longer drought declared, they can apply for an Individually Droughted Property (IDP) declaration.

"This will continue to give them the same access to drought assistance as a current area declaration."

For most primary producers situated east in the Barcaldine area, the revocation of the drought declaration has been a long time coming.

Barcaldine Regional Council mayor and Alpha district grazier Sean Dillon welcomed the LDC's decision.

"I commend the LDC for what I would interpret as being in broad terms a very accurate representation of the lineage," Cr Dillon said.

"The LDC has done an exceptional job in identifying the regions that have had back-to-back recoveries as opposed to those that have recovered or in the process of recovery.

"The recovery was swift for a lot of us in what I call the predominate buffel country on the eastern side of Barcaldine and it certainly has had a pretty good recovery over the past 12 months, converging on nearly two years.

"I won't say overdue, but it's certainly no surprise."

Cr Dillon said it was the first time primary producers have been positive about the season in more than 14 years.

"Whilst this has been almost the perfect start to that recovery in terms of spring and summer rain, there has been a moderate temperature, which has allowed for a good growing season, but perennial pastures are certainly not recovered to the same extent west of that line, as they have east," he said.

"To the west, as defined in the area that's remained drought declared, they look good now, but this is really the first time they've looked okay and we still haven't yet seen a widespread recovery of perennial feed in that area.

"There's certainly a lot of good annual feed that's recovered but the perennials are what we're going to need to see a recovery."

Cr Dillon said he was still seeing producers building back to a sense of positivity in that western area and that they were very cautious about rapidly restocking.

"Cautiously optimistic is how I phrase the attitude that most producers in the western areas are displaying," he said.

"The overriding concern for those western producers will be that they've literally only had that one summer of rain in a lot of cases and they haven't seen the significant rebuilding of their perennial pastures to the degree that would allow anything approaching a full restocking program to occur."