WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet | CONTACT
“Easy tax write-off,” laughs Graeme Thomas while he shows our reporter a picture of a brand new Landcruiser Sahara on his wife’s iPad.
“Obviously will make a few trips down to Yamba as well,” winks the same man who was on TV a little while back talking about the devastating drought.
“And maybe the next trip around Australia with the Bushtracker,” he says, motioning out to the family caravan.
The 3rd generation farmer who mostly runs cattle on his 4,200 acres Northwestern NSW property, said it’s been a good six months or so, and it looks like there’s plenty more rain coming.
“Yeah, it’s time to start thinking about the new Sahara and maybe upgrading the place down at Yamba.”
“The kids have already been through Joeys and Loretto so we don’t have that cost to weigh us down this time around.”
“And we shouldn’t have another drought for a while.”
After having the profitability of his business severely impacted by the inability to offload the cattle he’d overstocked on his property, Thomas has now made it out the other side with plenty of stock to cash in on thanks to record cattle prices.
“That’s how we’ve always done things here on Maryvale” – (the name given to his property by his wife and denoted by a bespoke timber sign on the start of the family driveway)
“You get bad times, where you blame god, the people in the city and the land, and wonder why this happens to you.”
“Then you get good times, where you cash in, pay the kids private school fees, upgrade your cars and holiday houses, and live like that forever.”
When asked if he’d thought of ways to future proof his business so that he doesn’t have to kick dust up on Four Corners next time it stops raining for a while, Thomas ‘that’s nigh on impossible.’
“Future-proofing is impossible on the land. How hard is it for you townies and city people to get that through ya heads.”
“I agree with Sky News. To blame the last few years of drought on this so-called ‘climate change’ is just something that these inner-city types do when they don’t wanna help farmers turn a profit.”
MORE RAIN TO COME.
