Drought resources

At any given time the vast region covered by Southern NSW Innovation Hub is experiencing a myriad of environmental impacts across agriculture, industry and community, with drying conditions impacting many areas.

While the Hub's role is supporting drought preparation, we do have a great network of partners and contacts who can provide you the resources you need when you are in drought. The following is a range of services and support available to anyone experiencing, or preparing for, the impacts of drought.

This interactive tool provides a snapshot of current seasonal conditions for NSW, factoring in rainfall, soil moisture and modelled pasture/crop growth indices.

  • Drought Adoption Officers are funded by the Australian Government's Future Drought Fund through the Southern NSW Innovation Hub and Southern Queensland Northern NSW Hub to support NSW landholders to uptake Future Drought Fund tools and drought resilience innovations at a localised, on-farm, community level.
  • The Drought handbook includes advice and personal thoughts from Local Land Services staff, links to online resources, and other support available to landholders. This guide was produced specific to the Central Tablelands Local Land Services region, but may also have useful drought advice for your situation.
  • A series of 'dealing with dry times' webinars for livestock producers across the state to assist landholders in their decision making and management of their livestock through dry times.
  • A guide to confinement feeding sheep and cattle in NSW, developed by Central Tablelands Local Land Services aims to provide producers with best practice management protocols and recommendations when confinement feeding stock on-farm.

SafeWork and Fair Trading waive licence fees for drought-affected customers experiencing financial difficulty.

To be eligible you must work or live in an area classified as 'Intense Drought or Drought' by the Department of Primary Industries.

  • Drought Loan - Prepare for drought. Manage or recover from the effects of drought.
  • AgBiz Drought Loan - For farm-related small businesses to manage and recover from drought.
  • AgriStarter Loan - Loans to assist first-time farmers and loans to support farm succession arrangements
  • Plantation Loan - Loans to support new plantation development and the replanting of bushfire-damaged plantations
  • Farm Investment Loan - Recover from severe business impact and prepare for future financial disruptions.
  • Financial counsellors provide free guidance and support for primary producers to people experiencing financial difficulties in their businesses or personal lives; and
  • Offers free, personalised, independent, and confidential face to face support to small business owners in financial difficulty within regional NSW.
  • Financial Assistance – currently closed
  • Fodder - Rural Aid sources and delivers fodder for primary producers when there is a localised need for assistance. If you are in need of fodder assistance, contact us for more information.
  • Domestic Water - Rural Aid coordinates domestic water deliveries to assist farmers in need of household water.
  • Domestic Water Tanks – currently closed - Rural Aid provides farmers with the opportunity to apply for a 22,500/23,000 litre domestic water tank as part of Rural Aid’s sustainability initiative.

An online platform which partners with charitable organisations to match local needs with generosity of donors.

The CWA is the largest women's organisation in Australia and aims to improve conditions for country women and children.

Phone 8337 0200 or visit www.cwaofnsw.org.au

Provides personal support, advocacy, clothing and some financial assistance. Phone 13 18 12 or visit www.vinnies.org.au

Mental Health Support

The Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP) has 20 Coordinators employed by Local Health Districts across regional, rural and remote NSW – who provide health promotion and educational activities in their local communities and link individuals with appropriate services.

  • Link - Provide personalised advice to link individuals who need assistance for their mental health to the most appropriate services and resources.
  • Train - Deliver standardised and tailored mental health training to build capacity among community members and workplaces to identify and link people to services and resources.
  • Inform - Produce and disseminate information about mental health and available services and resources through a wide variety of channels targeting rural and remote people.
  • Partner - Work in partnership with stakeholders to create pathways to care and a flexible interagency response to priority groups and issues.

The Rural Aid Mental Health and Wellbeing team is made up of experienced counsellors who are based in rural towns across the country. Rural Aid counsellors offer free, confidential support to farmers and their families.

Counselling Intake Line – 1300 175 594

Having a tough time and need someone to talk to right now? The following services are there to listen and help you out. They are confidential and available 24/7.