Parched in Australia

  • 07/11/2006

  • International Herald Tribune (Bangkok)

Australia long hot summer has barely begun but already the dams are running dry, crops are stunted form lack of water and livestock markets are being over whelmed by farmers trying to sell sheep and cattle they cannot feed. Australia drought is now in its fourth year, and out in the vast expanses of the Australian outback , where farms that can be the size of small nations mold a hardy breed of farmer, there is desperation.