COULD this be the driest agricultural area in Australia?
Local farmers Allan Johnstone and Kevin Childes think it is, and believe they have the rainfall records to prove it.
Historically the Devon Park area north of Oakey has recorded an average annual rainfall of 750mm, but in the past decade its rainfall totals have dropped to a fraction of that amount (see 10 year rainfall totals above).
No one knows why, but local farmer Allan Johnstone is desperate to find an answer as to why one of the wettest areas on the Darling Downs has so quickly become one of the driest. “There is no point treating the effect, we have to treat the cause,” he says.
Arguing that one drought affected region is worse affected than another drought affected region is always going to be grounds for contention, but Mr Johnstone is adamant that comparisons with other areas will show Devon Park is drier.
The heritage machinery enthusiast says he routinely writes down radio broadcasts of daily rainfall totals for the Darling Downs and has come to firmly believe that Devon Park is about the worst affected drought area in the region.
What sets Devon Park apart from the many other dry farming areas that have endured long-term drought, according to Mr Johnstone, is the lack of a single good rainfall year since 2002.
Of the rain that has fallen, more than 75pc has arrived in the form of small 0.5mm to 3mm showers that provide virtually no benefit.
Only once since 2002 has a single fall on Mr Johnstone's property Lavalla exceeded 25mm (one inch).
That was 80mm in May 2009, a joyously welcomed rain event that prompted Mr Johnstone to plant 500 acres of wheat. Heartbreakingly, the dry patterns returned immediately and what he had hoped would be a return to a two tonne per acre wheat crops of the past withered in the dry conditions to a final yield of three quarters of a tonne per acre by harvest. That was the only significant crop Lavalla has grown in the past eight years.
While the rain depressions created by ex tropical cyclones Lawrence and Olga since Christmas delivered falls of 50mm to 100mm plus across wide areas of Queensland, Devon Park measured each event in single figures, and recorded zero rainfall again this week when another change swept through parts of the Downs.
“If you can get relief once a year you can at least get some income, but you can’t get any relief out of 3mm or 4mm or 5mm, especially when the ground is so dry.
"We used to think God lived on Greenwood Hill (a nearby landmark) because it was always so wet here, but something has caused rain patterns to shift.
“This has been going on for 20 years, gradually, and since 2002 it has been so bad we haven’t been able to grow a crop. We plant a crop every time, but we just don’t get one.
“I don’t have a word for it. You are depressed, but you try to keep going.”
Neighbour Kevin Childes said his family moved to the Devon Park region from Charleville when he was a child to get away from the drought.
“We have been in droughts before but never as long and dry as this one.”
Mr Johnstone said dams on his property had been basically dry for 20 years and he had his cattle on agistment for two years.
The Johnstones have planted more than 14,500 trees across their 320ha property for conservation purposes over the past 20 years, but rather than attract rainfall, the trees have now started dying because of the severe drought.
Mr Johnstone believes that topographical changes made to the surrounding landscape in recent decades may have disturbed weak rainfall patterns and altered the way weather systems move through the valley their farm is part of.
“The answer I’m looking for is that there is no point in treating the effect, we must find out what the cause of this is and treat that cause.”
Devon Park rainfall for the past 10 years
(Long term annual average 750mm)
Year Rainfall (mm)
1999 625
2000 610
2001 425
2002 450
2003 380
2004 320
2005 300
2006 304
2007 280
2008 307
2009 250
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