When I was 10 years old, I experienced my first drought.
Dams were so dry cattle were getting stuck in them trying to get a drink of water. Foxes were fat because there were a lot of dead animals to eat. The ground was dusty. The air was dry. And my family was stressed.
Stressed because we were running a 4,000 acre property stocked with cattle and we had no food to feed them. No rain meant no grass, which meant no fat cows, which meant no money coming in because we couldn’t sell them. It also meant not much money to buy hay or dry lick (which essentially makes it possible for them to eat dead grass).
Listen to Elissa discuss rural mental health on the latest episode of Mamamia Out Loud:
It’s a feeling we’ve felt over and over again, every time the rain stops. And it’s a feeling that countless farming families know all too well.
Instances such as drought make people who live through it tough and resilient. They give farmers their classic ‘she’ll be right’ attitude. But they also make people put their animals and their properties ahead of their mental health. And that shouldn’t be the case.
Rural mental health is a big issue in Australia right now. But no one really knows what to say about it.
It’s the elephant in the room. Or the black sheep in the paddock.