DOUG and Fiona Nicholson must be the happiest drought-stricken graziers in Australia.
They've just come back from a fishing expedition at Kununurra and have already done a budget to work out what they need in the bank to get through another year with no rain.
The pair received an IDP on their property, Wongan, 90km north of Winton in April this year but began selling cattle as early as January.
They would normally run 7000 sheep and 2200 cattle but these days 70 rams and 50 killers have the run of 19,000 dusty hectares.
Wongan will have been in the family for 100 years next year but never before has it been fully destocked.
"It's not until you get dying stock out of your head that you can even think about opportunities," Doug said.
"Selling all our stock means we don't have to put out cottonseed anymore, we don't have to put out lick, and there's no more money going out.
"It was tough to sell the sheep - we've put a lot into them - but it felt good when they were on the truck."
The pair acknowledge that the prices they got were well below the money received in past years - $35 for their best ewes against $100/hd four or five years ago - and they had to pour 130 tonnes of cottonseed into them to keep them in a saleable condition, but still describe themselves as lucky because the worry has been lifted from their minds.
The other good part of taking stock off is not having grazing pressure on their soft Mitchell grass country.
"The time between drinks will be the thing," Doug said.
The amount of ground cover is what makes this drought different from others experienced on the property, but looks are deceiving.
Although they appear to have feed aplenty, stock were still dying on it.
Wongan has only had 62mm this year in 13 falls of rain.
Doug and Fiona haven't taken too much notice of the government assistance available, saying rebate availability shouldn't come into management decisions.
"In 1996 we took cattle to St George on agistment and got $1.20/km for transport," Doug said.
"It was too much then, and it's probably too little now.
"For us, it's all about management, regardless of the seasons."
They would love to buy back into the market they sold on, but restocking in any capacity isn't worrying them at present.
"There's always a drought somewhere in Australia," Doug said.
"We might have to go a long way, and I think sheep will be pretty hard to get, but we'll just see what's out there."
In the meantime they've prepared the worst case scenario and know how much money they will need to keep in the bank to pay the bills that keep coming in, even if it doesn't rain.
