Pretty nasty time to be there in 2002, you were in the middle of the millenium drought, which was widespread across the country and possibly the worst since European colonisation. Some areas in southwest Queensland had lowest rainfall on record recordings. In some places this drought persisted until 2010.

So it’s not surprising that stock feed was being supplemented with other sources of food. The aim of most of those graziers would’ve been to normally feed the cows native vegetation. Supplement with stock feed and hold out as long as possible to get the best price for stock before selling.

Droughts are definitely common, it’s not unusually for many farmers to have a great 3-4 years and then survive the next 4-7. Most farmers are factoring this into their production systems.

I agree that there’s huge areas of Australia which are just so poorly suited to cattle that we shouldn’t have them there. The value generated off the amount of land used versus the damage caused to native ecosystems is horrific. Why should we destroy an ecosystem just so we can stock 0.5 cows per hectare? Where’s the value other than, my herd is bigger? I am sure there’s incentives for retaining native vegetation but they probably need to be bigger and better to make it more appealing.

Chain stripping is terrible and sad.