There's no doubt about it, 2020 has been a year like no other.
For many, it will be a year they want to be forget but for yours truly, it is a year that will stick in my mind forever.
Three years ago I made the life-changing decision to pack up what little possessions I owned and leave my home state of Victoria (please don't hold that against me) for the chance to work with The Namoi Valley Independent newspaper in Gunnedah.
Little did I know I would be arriving into one of the worst droughts most locals had ever seen, nor did I anticipate how long it would last.
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I thought I knew drought from my childhood in Victoria's Wimmera region, but the challenges that producers in the North West and across NSW faced was on another level.
After a move to Tamworth in 2018 to write news and sport for two years at The Northern Daily Leader, my direction like so many in the agriculture sector began to shift.
It was while listening to Brad Cox put on a stellar performance during the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January that rain began to fall from the skies and fortunes began to turn.
From there the rain continued to soak into the parched region via significant summer storms.
Water restrictions began to roll back across the board and the attitudes of many began to brighten.
Conversations across the district transitioned from dust and destocking, to cropping options and soaring stock prices impacted by the need for producers to restock.
It seemed inevitable that I was destined to spend more time at the saleyards and in crop paddocks than I had in my entire career to that point.
Then, out of nowhere, an unknown virus gripped the world and sent me working from the hustle and bustle of a regional newsroom to the cramped confines of my two-bedroom unit.
It was a stark reminder that life can change on a whim, but I took a lot of solace out of the words so many farmers had uttered to me during the drought "all you can do is get on with the job".
This spirit was evident in May when tariffs placed on Australian barley by China failed to deter Winton farmer Terry Blanch from planting his crop.
Like so many farmers, Mr Blanch was eager to adapt and find alternate buyers for his product.
"You've got all of the craft breweries in the market these days," he said in May.
"They're quickly becoming substantial buyers of malt barley and that's a new market away from the multinationals and away from things like that."
Fortunately for Terry, spring conditions continued to work in his favour and he enjoyed one of his most successful yields ever.
"Personally, some of the stuff we've got has the best potential to yield that we've ever grown," he said in October.
The good will around this year's winter harvest was shared across the North West.
However, locals had mixed reactions about the approval of two controversial extraction projects by the NSW Independent Planning Commission.
The approval of Whitehaven Coal's Vickery Extension Project and Santos' Narrabri Gas Project divided communities and inspired farming groups to rise up.
After the 850-well Narrabri Gas Project gained federal government approval in November, traditional owner Polly Cutmore said Gomeroi people would continue to fight the project.
"Scott Morrison doesn't decide for us, the Independent Planning Commission doesn't decide for us what happens on our country," she said.
The project's approval then thrust a light onto expired gas exploration sites across the state, which could be reactivated.
Concerned landholders have been eager to persuade local councils such as Liverpool Plains Shire Council and Gunnedah Shire Council to take a stand on the "zombie PELs".
Liverpool Plains Shire Council opted to take a stand during its December meeting and followed the lead of Moree Plains and Dubbo councils from earlier this year.
As these issues continued to play out I like so many others claimed a piece of the "country Australian dream" by purchasing my first home in Tamworth.
The COVID-19 pandemic may have thrown us its challenges but pleasingly it inspired hundreds of urban dwellers to make a tree change and head to the bush.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 85,500 people moved interstate in the three months to the end of June 2020 and of those, a healthy proportion moved to regional areas.
In the June 2020 quarter, there was a net loss of 10,500 people from Australia's greater capital cities through internal migration.
There's no doubt the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent new tools to help people work remotely played a major role in the desire to move to the bush and I for one welcome them.
Just when I thought the year had thrown up all of its changes, I landed my dream job as a reporter for The Land.
Telling the stories of those making things happen in a variety of industries has always excited me, and to say I was excited to get started may be the understatement of the year.
Whether it's innovative ideas such as Scott Morgan's solar-powered irrigation bore on his property near Gunnedah, or a bumper season for peonies in the New England, it has been an exciting start to my tenure.
I may have only had a brief taste of telling the stories of those on the land this year, but I can not wait to be there for this thriving sector during whatever 2021 throws at us.
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Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
