‘Dire’: Shock drought reality hitting Aussies

“I had a young bloke from the country ring me up with a young bub, and she had no water,” he told this week.

“She’d been told she’d have access to water in two weeks’ time.”

“There’s just one (story) out of so many.”

“I had a couple out the back of Finniss, towards Clayton, they’d run out of water, I couldn’t get there for three or four days because I was so bogged down, and they had to take their newborn to their parents’ place, just so they could get a wash.”

The harsh conditions are widespread across South Australia, from the Fleurieu in the south and the Adelaide Hills area in the Greater Adelaide region to the Eyre Peninsula across the Spencer Gulf.

A clear map from the Bureau of Meteorology highlights rainfall decile ranges, showing that the entire southern part of the state received “a lot less than average” or the “lowest amount ever recorded” for the year.

“South Australia’s agricultural regions got the lowest amount of rain ever recorded for the period from February 2024 to January 2025, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. This is based on records going back to 1900, says senior climatologist Jonathan Pollock to this week.”

2024 kicked off with above-average rain in most of South Australia in January, but it was a different story from February to May, with below-average rain falling right across the agricultural regions.

“Large chunks of the agricultural regions, including the Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula and the Upper South East region, experienced their driest autumn on record.”

The drought is putting farmers, growers, small businesses and hundreds of households in a precarious situation.

Yankalilla Mayor and cattle farmer Darryl Houston said farmers were “culling their stock” and trucking in water to keep going.

“Farming’s a real challenge even on a good day, but when you’ve also got to source hay and haul in water, it makes it even tougher,” he said to .

“It’s going to be a pretty tough next six months, without a doubt.”

He claimed his own dam was on the verge of drying up, a situation that had never occurred previously.

Hundreds of homes and rural properties that are located outside the main towns aren’t connected to the reticulated water supply, so they rely on rainfall to fill their water tanks and dams.

No rain means no water, and a call to the water suppliers like Mr Solly to get by.

Mr Houston said if the Fleurieu didn’t get a decent winter, the situation would become a real concern and farms could go out of business.

“He reckons it’s going to be a pretty tough year ahead, that’s for sure.”

You wouldn’t want two years like this one back to back.

“If you had another year like this one following on from it, that would be a real issue. You definitely couldn’t cope with two years in a row like this one.”

Some of the state’s winemakers are also experiencing the effects.

“Most of our problems were caused by that inadequate winter rain,” Nigel Van Der Zande, the vineyard manager for Kaesler Wines in the Barossa Valley, said to .

We’ve got heaps of old vineyards with roots that go right down deep, and the key to getting through a season in good shape is that our soils are like massive water-absorbing sponges, and they need to fill up during winter with all that rain, and when we’re in a drought, that doesn’t happen.

The dry conditions also bring with them a greater risk of frost, he said.

“They’re inherently linked,” he said.

A lot of people in the Barossa Valley have copped a frost, and that’s going to affect their yields.

Mr Pollock warned that climate influences may be nudging Australia towards drier conditions.

“Rainfall in Australia is pretty unpredictable, but there’s been a noticeable trend towards drier conditions in southern parts of the country, particularly during the cooler months from April to October,” he said.

“The decline in rainfall in the area is linked to a shift towards higher air pressure near the surface and a change in big-picture weather patterns – more high-pressure systems, fewer low-pressure systems, and a reduction in the number of rain-making lows and cold fronts.”

Since national records started in 1910, Australia’s average temperature has risen by 1.51 degrees Celsius, with most of this warming happening since 1950.

“Every decade since the 1950s has been warmer than the decade beforehand.”

The state government announced an $18 million drought relief package back in November.

Assistance measures include $2 million to help charities cover freight costs for transporting donated fodder, $1 million for extra health and wellbeing support through the rural financial counselling service and $5 million in grants for drought-resistant on-farm infrastructure and a $100,000 fund for communities to host events that promote connection and support.

Mr Houston said the package might not be sufficient to meet the challenge.

“Fair dinkum, that won’t go far enough, considering the situation and the fact it’s right across the whole state, practically everywhere,” he said.

Around 80 per cent of Mr Solly’s customers are householders, but he also delivers water to caravan parks, cafes, shops, and farmers.

He said he was getting too busy and now had a wait list of three weeks.

“Just the sheer scale of calls I’m dealing with,” he said.

I’m going through about 20 voice messages that I haven’t checked today.

“When it gets to the point where people are going without water for days, it really gets to you.”

I’ve been doing this for 18 years now and we’ve always been able to provide a service where we can get to you within 24 hours, but this year we just can’t.

“It’s getting to the point where it’s almost too hard to handle.”