The Drought Resilience Podcast
Listen to honest accounts of the drought from farming families in Orroroo, Eudunda and Keyneton. This podcast, produced in partnership with Talking Livestock and Voice it, features four South Australian sheep producers who have battled consecutive years of drought. Each interview reveals how they navigated their businesses and families through the financial and mental hardships, including practical coping strategies such as containment feeding. The Drought Resilience Podcast is supported by the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board, through funding from the Australian Government.
Episode 1: Georgie Keynes and Toby Rosensweig
Meet Georgie Keynes and Toby Rosenzweig. The drought coincided with the couple taking over management of the Keynes family’s historic sheep grazing property.
Dams went dry, water pipes were installed and sheep went into containment lots.
Episode 2: Paul Schutz
“Further east of here there were Mallee trees dying. When you’ve got Mallee trees dying, you know it’s damn dry.” That’s Paul Schutz, Point Pass sheep farmer. The past four years have been the driest his family has ever experienced, but off-farm income, leasing property and containment feeding has got them through.
Episode 3: John Nicholas
Meet 34-year-old John Nicholas from Orroroo. John’s been farming for 10 years, but about half of them have been in drought. Despite the challenging conditions, hear John’s optimism for the future, about his adventures breeding dorpers, moving back to merinos and his plans to crack into the EU market.
Episode 4: Jim and Sam Keurschner
Jim and Sam Keurschner run a sheep and cropping operation at Blackrock near Orroroo and say it’s been the worst drought in living memory. But they’ve got through by using strategies like containment feeding which has helped them maintain most of their flock. Discover other ways they’ve dealt with the drought, including how they’ve coped with the mental hardships.
Episode 5: Amey and Reuben Solly
In this episode, you’ll meet brother and sister team Amey and Reuben Solly from Yednalue Station, 16 kilometres east of Cradock in the far north of South Australia.
Along with their parents, Darren and Debra, they run 8000 head of sheep across Yednalue and other leased properties and operate a livestock transport business. Like many families in that part of the world, the Solly’s suffered consecutive dry years since 2018.
Episode 6: Luke and Frances Frahn
Meet husband and wife Luke and Frances Frahn from Holowiliena Station, 40 kilometres east of Hawker in the upper north of South Australia. Frances grew up on Holowiliena, a sheep station that's been run by her family for over a century. Holowiliena is steeped in rich pastoral history, and it's this history that got Frances and Luke through one of the toughest droughts, by transforming it into an outback tourism experience.