Our livelihood depends on the rain: The past six months have been very trying times. Recovering from droughts, bushfires and now COVID-19. Farmers are working incredibly hard to make ends meet in these rough times. Two hardworking farmers who have been through it all are David and Linda.

The couple are located 200km north of Dubbo, an area that has been terribly affected by the drought. The drought has caused much distress for farmers in the area but rainfall earlier in the year brought some hope in a dark time. While there was some hope with the rain, tough times are still a reality due to COVID-19.

During the drought, David and Linda said the only thing that got them through was the help of the community, the Church and organisations like Frontier Services.

Our Bush Chaplain Phill Matthews has been in regular contact with David and Linda during this difficult period.

David and Linda told us that while crops are looking better there is still a very long way to go until business starts to do well again.

“Our livelihood is very dependent on getting rain,” said David.

David said that his main focus right now is getting money back into the farm after such a bleak time.

“I need to be breeding more cows, harvesting more crops. It’s going to take 2-3 years to get back to ‘normal’,” he said.

After speaking with David and Linda it is clear they are worried about what’s to come as they believe farmers could really feel the hit at the end of the year.

COVID-19 has also made it very difficult for the couple to find chemicals to buy for their crops.

“At the moment, when we sold our crops we couldn’t get any chemicals which is due to COVID-19,” he said.

“It’s all part of the farming industry and coronavirus makes it even harder than it already is.”

David and Linda are proud community members and David is also a volunteer Fire Captain and believes in supporting the community in any way he can.

“The best ways we find to help the community is by supporting local farmers and shopping local,” said David.

David and Linda both let me know that if there hadn’t been any rainfall and COVID-19 struck then the situation could have been even worse.

“We are just very thankful that we at least had rain when COVID-19 hit,” said Linda.

By supporting Frontier Services and our incredible Bush Chaplains like Phill Matthews you are helping do your bit to support hardworking farmers like David and Linda to get through this incredible difficult period.

This article is adapted from the August 2020 edition of Frontier News.