After over 6,600km of road travel in three Australian states one could still only get a feel for the immensity and diversity of the country. The weeks preceding the departure date for this Irish Tillage and Land Use Society (ITLUS) trip warned of the great danger posed by bush fires and the apparent inevitability of significant inconvenience caused by road and even town closures. Or that was what the media led us to believe.

The fires we didn’t see

We saw one fire at a distance in our three weeks of travel. We were not close enough to see flames, but we could see the huge plume of smoke in the sky. My eyes could not indicate the width of that fire. One farmer we visited told us of the soot deposited in his area which came from a fire that was about 250km away. These fires were serious where they occurred.

Many farmers we visited reported less than half their normal rainfall levels over a two-year period

Shortly after that encounter in Western Australia, we seem to have broken the weather there. We went down under with the hope that we could pull some of the incessant rain away from Ireland. We had partial success, but we left more than enough behind. We saw many areas where fires had been, the largest one we encountered had carved a 10km path through a forested area in Queensland. There were a number of houses in this path, but only one was burned. That was low population density country, compared with further south and east where the bulk of reporting came from.

Variable rainfall

Fires were happening everywhere as a result of three years of drought conditions across virtually all of the country. Many farmers we visited reported less than half their normal rainfall levels over a two-year period and that might only be around 400mm to begin with. But it is equally important to be aware that normal rainfall amounts are very variable, with 1.2m to 1.4m the average around the southwest corner of Western Australia and the lower regions of Queensland. In the north of that state, annual levels can average between 3m and 4m of rain per annum in the tropical regions.

One of the many storm clouds that assembled around us, this one close to Dalby in NSW.

In a meeting with representatives from the sugar cane industry in Brisbane, they told me that one small region in the north of the state had received just over 800mm in six hours on the previous day. As we travelled about the rain seemed to follow us and our hosts welcomed it.

Most days it rained as we travelled, but virtually never during a visit. These spills of rain lasted 15-30 minutes and could easily drop 20mm to 60mm during that time. This led to spot flooding and the signs of that were regularly seen from the debris lines left along roads and street verges. However, these showers were also very local.

Flood plains

It is also worth noting that many of the roads throughout the vast countryside carried permanent flood warnings, with roadside measures showing a depth of up to 2m. While rain was very much part of our tour, its impact was not visible across the countryside for the first two weeks.

It is summer in this part of the world and summer is normally the driest period. So, for those with stock, their seasons normally allow winter grazing and summer is the feeding season, as land generally dries out. That is exactly what we saw, as field (paddock) after field and mile after mile showed land that looked completely bare, which it was.

An example of the ubiquitous pastureland that was laid bare by continuous drought and over-grazing.

Stubble was identifiable because you could see it. But some stubble fields could still be annual crops that were grown and conserved, or possibly grazed, due to the lack of alternative fodder or not being good enough to harvest. Pasture fields were showing 90% soil and this was now giving rise to other concerns around the country. There was nothing on much of this ground that could burn, but it also very bare and poorly structured and subject to being blown away.

Erosion issues

Having grown up with the reports of the dust bowl in the US and the horror that it generated, I was always of the view that this would never be allowed to happen again. Unfortunately, it is happening and we witnessed it in various forms during our tour. We visited Mark Swift of Kebby and Watson farming company (Bruce Watson is an occasional contributor to the Irish Farmers Journal but was away during our visit). These guys do a great job of farming in difficult conditions and much of their success is down to paying great attention to the condition of their soil.

While cropping is mostly done using direct drilling, the importance of maintaining stubble and debris for ground cover is well recognised, but not always well practiced

Everything is direct drilled and most is precision drilled. Mark talked about the necessity of building an organic debris crust on top to help keep the soil cooler and get moisture penetration when rain comes. Precise autosteer is used with the precision drilling to sow the new crop directly into the previous stubble row.

Mark took us to one of his fields to show where a large amount of his neighbour’s soil had been deposited up against the dividing fence and into his field. Much of this deposition had happened in a very short time frame of a few weeks, not years.

He is now seriously concerned about the presence of this blown soil on his land, because it may have negative effects or could even be washed away during heavy rain.

About 2cm to 3cm of fine soil has blown onto this soil, covering the layer of organic debris beneath, which is very important to help keep the soil surface cool and to encourage moisture penetration into the soil post-rain.

Having encountered an amount of heavy rain, it was obvious that water erosion was also a serious factor. Soil could be seen everywhere following the bursts of heavy rainfall and we witnessed tonnes of it moving in torrents of water as it cut gulleys through bare fields.

Soil management

Soil management is a huge issue for farming in this dry landscape. While cropping is mostly done using direct drilling, the importance of maintaining stubble and debris for ground cover is well recognised, but not always well practiced.

Many livestock farmers have been feeding stock for up to two years now, so land has being grazed bare in the continuous hope of rain. But taking grazing a few months too far creates a whole other set of problems and challenges.

In summary

  • Fires may be widespread in parts of Australia, but not necessarily in good farming regions.
  • Three years of continuous drought have intensified the impact of fires this summer.
  • The country provides a great example of the need for soil management to help prevent a wide range of environmental problems.
  • Soil erosion in its many forms was witnessed during our tour.