• From The Weekend Australian Magazine
  March 29, 2019

 

“We’re always hoping,” says Jack Slack-Smith, a fifth-generation farmer on this land. “We tune in to the weather forecast first thing in the morning, a couple of times during the day, and last thing at night.”

When photographer Adam Ferguson visited late last year, the 65-year-old described it as the most severe drought of his lifetime. Since then, he says, “things have gone from bad to worse. We’ve had only 11.5mm of rain all year.”

 

Kids from local farming families play at the annual Christmas get-together in Come By Chance, a small community in the Pilliga region of NSW.

 

The mercury was nudging 48ºC near Renmark, South Australia, in mid-January when photographer Christian Fletcher spotted this mob of emus heading for the only bit of shade in an enormous paddock. “I was worried that the drone might spook them but they weren’t fazed by it at all,” he says. “I think they were so bloody hot, they didn’t give a damn.”

 

“Only the goats are thriving,” says Dogga Dare, a Queenslander who last year managed the pub (and stood in as Santa at Christmas) in White Cliffs, NSW. He saw starving ’roos roaming through town, trees dying en masse, local farmers spending all their money on trucking in feed. “You couldn’t meet nicer people,” Dare says, “but jeez they’re doing it tough.”

The Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize exhibition opens at Sydney’s Juniper Hall, Paddington on May 4. moranprizes.com.au