CWA will form a working group to solve drought problems

The group, which supports rural women and rural communities, will form a working group in the coming weeks to discuss all things drought.

NSW CWA president Annette Turner said the group would aim to find solutions to some of the issues farmers face during drought and then take them to the state government.

Ways to drought-proof properties will be on top of the list, including programs to desilt dry dams and tanks.

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A cash hand-out from the government is not on the priority list.

It comes after Mrs Turner passed an emergency motion at the group’s state conference in Armidale last week. 

“The government recognise that we are a powerful lobbying group, the CWA of NSW are the largest CWA group in Australia; they recognise this, they acknowledge this and we’re also noticing that we are being accepted at a higher level of consultation so we are confident about getting our message out there,” Mrs Turner said.

“More needs to be done, a comment from one lady after seeing a rural councillor was ‘they offered us more loans’ – a loan is not what they need at this time. 

“There’s a whole new generation of farmers who are buying in and they are trying to establish themselves and drought proof, which is an expensive exercise.

Mrs Turner lives on a sheep station with her husband 300 kilometres east of Broken Hill. 

“You go out and it’s hot and you see the hopelessness of the situation … the decay and the smell around the watering points, the suffering animals, it’s a sad time and everyone is doing their absolute best," she said. 

“I was out mustering sheep with my husband and the dust was awful, you couldn’t see, it was blowing a gale.”