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Water Reservoir Cleared as Drought and Wildfires Grip New South Wales Farmland

Months of drought and the threat of wildfires forced Katrina Stones’ family to dig up one of their agricultural dams. With the water in the dams drying up, hazardous mud was left in its stead, which Stones referred to as “death traps for cattle”.

According to Stones, smoke from the Ebor and Red Range wildfires can be seen in the video uploaded to Instagram on September 15.

Describing the scenes on her family farm as “devastating”, Stones commented on Instagram that the area “is slowly turning to Mars”.

The reservoir was cleared to prevent any further accidents but also in the off-chance of rainfall. Stones told Storyful, “Cleaning them out like this enables the water in the table to seep through, so when it does eventually rain, the livestock will be able to access it with ease and not get stuck.”

With below-average rainfall experienced in August, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology reports that water storages in Northern Murray–Darling Basin are “extremely low”. Credit: Katrina Stones via Storyful