The 20-truck Farmers Across Borders Meekatharra Hay Run went from Esperance on Saturday January 25 arriving in Meekatharra on Australian Day. This is one of the faces from the journey:
Pastoralist: Harvey Nichols
Station: Sherwood, Meekatharra
Area: 202,340ha
FOR five years Sherwood station, at Meekatharra, has been enduring a tough drought.
The property is owned and operated by Harvey Nichols and his father Bill and hosted the welcome celebration barbecue on Australia Day.
Sherwood acted as a depot for the Meekatharra region, where 11 other station owners or workers could pick up some of the donated fodder for the recent Farmers Across Borders Meekatharra Hay Run.
For Harvey, the most difficult part about the drought was the impact on his mental health and those around him.
"The mental toll is the worst - the hardest thing is not doing work because there's not much to do at the time," Harvey said.
"And nearly everyone here has kids at boarding school and the fees have been the hardest hit to take."
He has three kids - Ethan, 18, who is doing an apprenticeship in the mining industry, Anna, 17 and Luke, 16.
With the delivery of feed and new faces around the property to meet and talk to, Harvey said it was good to have some more positivity in the air.
"It's good to spread some cheer more than anything else," Harvey said.
"And we've heard some of the stories from people from around Esperance, who have also had some dry years."
The property has been minimally stocked with 1000 Poll Hereford cows and Harvey said the fodder would be used to feed some pets and stock closer to the house.
"We're feeding 18 pets and heifers near the homestead - we can't just kick the pets out in hard times," he said.
"The past five years of rainfall have been miserable.
"Last year we had 90 millimetres but it was really scattered so it wasn't very helpful.
"Our average is 200mm.
"It is Meekatharra - so we expect to have two bad years for every 10 but not this bad."
The property has been in the family since 1907, when the Nichols came from Cue where they had been for 16 years.
"They were miners originally then went into goat's milk of all things, then eventually sheep and cattle," he said.
"We went out of sheep 16 years ago because of wild dogs and eagles and poor prices.
"Since running just cattle the country has been a bit better.
"But we only try to run small numbers to keep the country in decent condition."
They muster once a year, usually from July onwards but it varies depending on the rain.
They have more than 40 trap yards and there is a water point at every yard.