Our memory plays dangerous tricks with us once droughts break. We forget them at our risk. Knowing that drought is a constant in the Australian story is the first weapon we have against it.
Rainfall records in Australia back to 1860 show that drought is a reality that will recur again and again regardless of climate change though climate change may be aggravating it.
The drought years were:
Devastating drought: 1895 – 1903; 1958- 1968; 1982-1983; 2001-2010
Major drought: 1864- 1866; 1868; 1880-1886; 1888; 1911-1916; 1918-1920; 1939-1945
Less severe drought: 1922-1923; 1926-1929; 1933-1938; 1946-1949; 1951-1952; 1970-1972; 1976; 1997-2000.
Drought always seems to catch us by surprise. Why?!
Question: How to measure drought and its impact.
[ul]Length of time it lasts
Loss of livestock numbers
Rainfall statistics (except that once there is no rain fail as a comparison)[/ul]
The drought just ended ran for longest and was of great intensity and severity. Yet it caused only a fraction of the hardship of the Federation Drought from 1895-1903 because rural Australians now expect drought and prepare for it scientifically and emotionally. Graziers will move swiftly to destock their lands at the beginning of drying conditions and handfeed their small remaining flocks and herds. They are quicker to seek off-farm work to supplement farm income in drought. Scientific farming methods enable much better use of the land. Governments are better able to target assistance and less likely to encourage the weak and incompetent to stay put.