Crook. Crook? Bloody Crook. Poem by Jim. Rimeriter.

The skies over the dry plains in the Gascoyne region have not opened for years.

Things once were crook in Talarook.
But now it’s Yinnetharra Station.
The rains haven’t come for many a year
across our dry ‘n dusty nation.

The water’s sparse, there’s not much grass,
the clouds are only streakin’.
The rains haven’t come for many a year,
bloody dam’s - just started leakin’.
Big ‘roos are hoppin’. There’s no use croppin’.
Paddicks are a dust bowl.
We raise our eyes up to the skies
then search our yearning black soul.
(c) Rimeriter.

**
Information by Skye Shannon from Carnarvon 6701
Monday,28/06/2010.

Pastoral stations in the Gascoyne haven't seen decent rain for several years.
As The WA Country Hour team moved further inland, the drought got worse.
Dave and Genevieve Robinson own Yinnetharra Station,350 kilometres east of Carnarvon. Dave or 'Waddy' is well known in the Gascoyne as being one of the most optimistic blokes around, so you know when he says things are crook, the times are pretty tough.Waddy says for the past few years most pastoralists have missed out on winter rain.
It means they are really banking of decent falls from summer thunderstorms, but this summer there was zero rain.
'It's got pretty damn dry pretty damn quickly actually...
we're in a fair bit of trouble.'
Waddy says at least another 40mm is needed now to bring hardy shrubs like Gascoyne bluebush, carara and rhagodia out of their drought stricken dormancy.

Wild dogs are a problem
It's not only the cattle that are hungry, so too are their predators.
Wild dogs are more of a problem than ever before.
They're literally eating cattle alive.
The dogs are in pack numbers, there's some horrible drag marks around the windmills at times.
Those dogs are eating the weaner cows while they're still alive.'