Living In The Drought

• Demi Pritchard, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2008

I have been living up here on the Paroo River at Mooleyarrah station for three years with my family. Seeing the country like this, it make’s all of us so sad, to think of all the animals and country dying. Every now and then the Paroo river floods but all the other country is still dead. The last big flood was in 2004. One day the river was running so fast it was hard to believe, and then we heard that the Cuttaburra was flooding as well, all this water was coming all at once. Our family was so happy but we just didn’t know if it would make it here because it had to travel thousands of kilometres. We went on a holiday, when we where leaving we went down to a place on our property called the “Lake”. It was just about coming down into it, we were so happy. We went thinking “I wonder what it will look like when we get back”. Our governess was minding the place while we were gone. When we came back, straight away after we unpacked, we went down and saw it. It was amazing! We were so surprised to see how much it had come up. Dad said, “It would be deep enough to swim in and have the tinny in”. The next day was the weekend we came down, with the tinny on the back of the Ute. “It is so beautiful” Mum and Dad said “there are so many birds” we all said. We got the tinny off the Ute. My little brother said “I bags going first” and we all laughed and we all had ago. “I can’t believe we ride our motorbikes here through, all the bumps” I said. We all had so much fun. After we pulled the tinny out, we had a sausage sizzle. It is so amazing how the water has changed our life style and Dad and Mum don’t have to worry about the feed and water for our stock. We all still go on the Paroo and on the lake water skiing and boogie boarding. The water has made our life so much easier and helped us a lot, and the grass is amazing. In some places the grass is so deep we can’t see were we are going. It is so amazing. Everyone up here is so happy with what the country has done for us. I love how it has changed our life up here at Mooleyarrah station and will always remember our experiences.