LAST year, Tamworth farmer Karen Nugent could barely look at the land she loved - the brown dirt, bone-dry dam, the desperate and hollow stares of sheep begging for a handful of food.
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Now, lush green grass has sprouted from damp soil, ducks breeze around on the dam, and the sheep she was forced to hand raise have birthed healthy lambs of their own.
The big dry of 2018 and 2019 was the worst Ms Nugent had ever seen, and never wants to see again.
"It's my outlook that's changed the most," she said, at the end of a year that has brought the most rain in a decade and more than triple the amount of rain as last year.
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The Loomberah landholder, along with her partner and her two kids, started to feel hope seeping in at the start of 2020.
"There hasn't just been one big storm and some false hope, there has been rain, and we're so grateful," she said.
"I swore black and blue that I would never ever again in my life say I wish it would stop raining for something, I will never utter those words again."
Ms Nugent said there were points at the worst of the drought where she felt "hopeless" and had to "admit defeat".
"There were patches outside the yard where I thought grass might never grow again, it was like brown cement," she said.
"Now I've had to go and buy a mower."
In late 2018, the property experienced deep cracks, which had split the dry earth at the bottom of a dam.
However, last week water was lapping at the sides of the same dam.
"There is life back now, and it makes you feel full of life too," Ms Nugent said.
They've had success with some oat crops, and they're starting to get the sheep and cattle numbers back up.
But despite the good rainfall seen across the region in the past year, she said the fear the drought instilled will never leave her.
"When I look outside and I see the dark clouds and I can feel the drops falling, that's when I know it's really raining," she said.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) station at Tamworth airport had recorded 861.8mm of rain so far this year.
That means more of the precious resource bucketed down on the region this year than any other year since 2010.
Only 263.6mm fell in 2019, a total Tamworth reached before the end of February this year.
Ms Nugent said the big dry had been a tough experience - and a learning curve - for her young family, and the land and animals still have a long route to recovery ahead.
"The conversation is different now, we can talk about other things besides the weather," she said.
Her hope for 2021? Just to get back to normal.
- This story first appeared on The Northern Daily Leader website.
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Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald. Email: afalkenmire@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald. Email: afalkenmire@austcommunitymedia.com.au
