'Children bathe every three days': The drought-stricken Aussies desperate for water
A few times a week, the low rumble of George Deen's water tanker sparks a frantic burst of activity at a shed on the outskirts of drought-stricken Stanthorpe in south-east Queensland.
Volunteers fire up pumps and connect hoses to holding tanks to offload the precious cargo the trucking company boss has sourced and more often than not paid for himself.
He knows that within the hour, scores of desperate rural residents will be queued at the shed, waiting to fill the 1000-litre pods they have loaded into their utes.
They are the out-of-towners who live beyond the reach of the Queensland town's urban water network.
The water tanks on their outlying properties are dwindling or dry and their dams are empty, with children bathing every two or three days.
They can buy water from the local council and pay to have it carted home as the region's worst drought on record rolls on.
But a typical bill – $500 for haulage and two months' supply – is now beyond the reach of many after such a prolonged period of hardship.
Every time Mr Deen delivers a free load of water from Brisbane, it's an eight-hour round trip that costs $450 in fuel. He frequently cops the bill for that as well because he knows how bad things are.
"Well it needs doing, doesn't it?" he says simply.
Mr Deen is among the most active supporters of Granite Belt Water Relief, a new charity that gives away water to rural families twice a week.
Every Wednesday and Saturday volunteers including the charity's founder Russell Wantling keep the queue moving with ruthless efficiency, happy to be offering practical help but angry that the job has been left to volunteer organisations like his.
"We've had every political person up here stand in an empty dam and not one thing is being done," he says.
In the line there's frustration too, but also a profound sense of gratitude from people who are genuinely fearful about their futures on properties with no water security.
Marie Ashmore, 72, has always lived a self-sufficient life, her prosperity linked to that of her animals on her property, six kilometres out of Stanthorpe.
But the drought has forced her to give away most of her turkeys, geese and sheep. She now has just a few animals left and until the water shed sprang up, she feared they would have to go too.
"I'm a smallholder feeding myself and my little family who live down the road. But I'm not entitled," she says when asked if she's getting any government help with water.
"If we didn't have these lovely people to give us water, we were going to have to kill them all. No one wants them."
It's a story you hear repeated over and over again in the water queue.
Animals sent to slaughter because families cannot afford to feed and water them. Horses that can't be given away because no one wants the financial burden of keeping them alive.
‘Children are bathing every two or three days’
Southern Downs Mayor Tracy Dobie feels the pain of her neighbours and constituents but says the council can't give water to rural residents when people in town have to pay for it.
There's also the fact that Stanthorpe's only water source, Storm King Dam, is expected to run out of water by December or January.
The crisis has forced the state government to promise $800,000 a month to truck water from Connolly Dam to Storm King.
That will shore up water security for town residents, who are on critical water restrictions of 100 litres per person, per day. But it will be of no help to rural families who cannot afford to pay for water.
Champion campdrafter Ashlee Sauver is currently working three jobs but even so she's only just managing to support her one-year-old son and keep six of the 22 horses she used to have.
For her, the water shed has been a small miracle, shaving $100 off the $400 it costs each week to feed and water her beloved equine "siblings" at Applethorpe, outside Stanthorpe.
"At one stage, the council was saying you're going to have to let your stock die in the paddock. It was scary."
Mr Wantling is determined to keep the water shed open and says support from the trucking industry, other charities, and concerned Australians has been nothing short of phenomenal.
"People don't have drinking water, they're embarrassed about having to ask for water.
"We've got children that are only bathing every two or three days, and people need stock water as well, so we'll keep going."
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