Record rainfall like 'oxygen itself' for Nullarbor pastures as farmers restock after long dry spell

Properties like Kanadah Station are finally green again, and some pastoralists are restocking. (Supplied: Mark Forrester)

After six “very challenging” years of below-average rainfall, drenched outback stations in Western Australia’s Nullarbor region are transforming into a lush green oasis, and some pastoralists are finally bringing back livestock onto their properties.

While most of Western Australia remains historically dry, the Nullarbor has been soaked by record-breaking rain this year, ending a long drought.

At Kanandah Station, on the western edge of the Nullarbor Plain, halfway between Kalgoorlie and the WA border, Mark and Karen Forrester have recorded 482 millimetres of rain so far this year — more than double the property’s annual average.

They have spent the past six years carefully managing a minimal cattle herd through very dry seasons across Kanandah and Balgair stations, but are now buying and transporting cattle back to their properties to capitalise on the grass and fodder growing across the station.

“It’s simply stunning to look around and see the bush come alive, it’s just fantastic — oxygen itself it is,” Mr Forrester said.

“We are pretty much set up for two years with this, the growth we are seeing now and the growth we will experience over the next six months.”

The Forresters thought the drought had broken in January when they recorded 108mm of rain, more in a single day than they had received in the previous six years individually. But they then received another 374mm in March in a record breaking weather event.

The Forresters have had cattle away on agistment for more than two years, some of which have been trucked home, and the family have been buying lighter cattle from the dry WA agricultural region.

“It’s a bit hard to explain how phenomenally well the cattle do in this dry country when you get a season, they’re just jumping out of their skins,” Mr Forrester said.

“If we can get a few younger cattle onto it, they’re going to do very well.

“We won’t be able to bring on enough cattle to make full use of the grass that will happen during winter and into spring, I think it’s more what we can handle logistically with the crew that we have here.”

The amount of grass emerging on the station can present a bushfire risk later in the year when it dries and some areas need to be grazed as part of managing fire risk.

The Forresters have trucked cattle in via back tracks onto Kanandah and will drove mobs to their Balgair Station, a week-long job on motorbikes, but one necessary due to floodwaters and a lack of road options.

Across the Nullarbor, water still remains in low points, slowly soaking into the ground into aquifers.

This has presented a challenge for some properties wanting to truck livestock in as roads are still flooded or cut.

While the roads are preventing some pastoralists from carting stock out to the Nullabor, other pastoralists are choosing not to restock yet.

The majority of stations in the Nullarbor region run cattle, aside from three with vermin-proof fencing, which reduces wild dog attacks and allows sheep to survive.

One of those is Madurah Plains Station, one of Australia’s largest sheep stations, 200 kilometres west of the South Australian border.

The Cooper family have been restocking the 712,000-hectare property with sheep purchased out of WA’s agricultural region.

The Coopers are hoping to return the Madura merino flock to about 60,000 head, and are largely buying scanned-in-lamb ewes, with a view to having lambs drop onto the fresh green feed.