Escape from the city

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As survivors of the 1960’s Social Studies curriculum we have a reasonable grasp of this nation’s regions. The coastal fringe, the golden slopes and the western plains. One that alluded us was The Granite Belt. Nightly on the news in QLD one cannot escape the plight of this area of the Great Dividing Range which stretches from Queensland’s Darling Downs to the New England region of NSW. Centred on the town of Stanthorpe this is a region that is all but bone dry. 
This normally subtropical highland region is presently dominated by death and dust. Gum trees are dying. Scrawny stock graze on dust. Towns are limiting residents to a mere100 litres of water per day. It’s pretty grim. This is not the arid western area doing it tough. This is lush, productive country being brought to its knees by an unprecedented prolonged lack of rain. Thankfully this week they did receive 30mls, a mere drop in the ocean of what is really needed.
We stay 40kms west of Armidale
with Wendy’s brother Bryan and his wife Kathy. Their medium sized farm devastated by drought, is just beginning to show some signs of life after recently receiving 50mls of rain, which began to fill some dams and has given the dust an ever so slight green tinge.

Bryan and Kathy’s warmth, hospitality and enjoyment of their relatively recent ‘Escape from the City’ shows an admirable resilience in the face of drought. Instead of downsizing they are upsizing their way into retirement. Kathy with determination, love and a keen eye for a bargain, orders beautiful, pre-loved curtains and soft furnishings from as far away as the UK. She is turning a once neglected house into a federation homestead that should be featured in a Laura Ashley catalogue. Bryan is mending fences, revitalising old stock yards and teaching himself animal husbandry. Their city raised dog Louie is reborn as a sheep-herding, fox-chasing, rabbit-hunting kelpie legend.
Today we see, smell and taste drought. Our thoughts, prayers and actions need to be with those whose everyday life, is drought.  






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