SYDNEY -- Muddy floodwaters stretching across an area the size of the United Kingdom are washing away not only hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops and livestock but the souls of Australian farmers.
Some farmers whose land is now a mass of water and logs have not seen a pay cheque for five years after battling several seasons of droughts, floods, disease and low prices.
Like some huge gurgling monster, muddy waters from 13 flooded rivers on Tuesday covered more than a third of the state of New South Wales, or more than 215,000 square km (83,000 sq miles).
These are the farmlands of Poet Dorothea Mackellar's "my country" in which she describes Australia as a sunburnt country of sweeping plains and "droughts and flooding rains".
Battling farmers say the floods are the worst in 40 years and are fuelled by the wettest November on record, with the region receiving 300mm (a foot) of rain in the past week.
The New South Wales Farmers' Association has estimated the damage to crops, livestock and rural infrastructure at A$500 million (U.S.$256 million). "It is a loss of just staggering proportions," said association president John Cobb.
The state government has declared the region a natural disaster and the Australian government announced on Tuesday an additional A$10 million assistance on top of its standing natural disaster relief fund.
(Reuter)