Orbost cattle and sheep farmer Ron Dooley has had a connection to his land since childhood. It’s a place he still finds great peace and comfort today, even after the difficult seasons he’s experienced in recent years.
First came drought, where all but one dam on the property ran completely dry. There was just enough water to drink and keep the stock going, but everything else perished. And then came fire.
While Ron describes his bushfire experience as “horrific”, in typically humble bush fashion, he’s just grateful it wasn’t as bad as what some of his neighbours went through.
While many properties were evacuated, Ron and his family stayed to defend their land, battling one fire just 50m from his neighbour’s house, and another stretching a kilometre in front of his own. The experience was traumatic.
“A couple of things happened there that affected me pretty severely over the next two years,” Ron said.
“I had a bit of a mishap when I was fighting in front of the fire. You couldn’t see where you were going, and I ran into a dam wall and stalled a tractor with flames coming up through the bottom. It’s hard when you sat back after that thinking what could’ve been.”
Ron was put in touch with Rural Aid to help him work through some of the mental health impacts he faced after living through such an ordeal.
“After the fires I struggled pretty badly with doubting myself. Nothing was clear in my head. I doubted every decision I made, I had trouble making a decision,” Ron said.
Ron worked with counsellor Darren Devlin from Rural Aid’s mental health and wellbeing team to establish strategies to help when feelings of indecision and doubt overwhelmed him.
“It did help, yes. The big thing really is talking with other people. Even if it’s not with Rural Aid, but with mates. I had some mates that went through it as well,” Ron said.
Darren cites the compounding effect of consecutive disaster events as one of the main causes of the mental health struggles he sees in his region.
“Most of the people I’ve spoken to never really got over one disaster before it rolled into the next,” he said.
As drought now rapidly spreads and bushfire season begins to take hold across Queensland and New South Wales, countless Aussie farmers like Ron are bracing for more hardship and heartbreak. Learn more about the work Rural Aid is doing to support our farmers and rural communities, and what you can do to help here: