1.
GV Parched land & skeleton (3 shots)
0.14

2.
GV Vulture overhead of carcasses
0.19

3.
SV PAN From ribs of dead sheep TO bodies (2 shots)
0.38

4.
GV Mob of sheep PULLBACK TO Dry land (2 shots)
1.01

5.
SV Sheep in pen hobbling with weakness
1.22

6.
SV PAN Carcasses in waterhole
1.28

7.
GV Sheep on farm drinking from hole
1.44

8.
GV Truck along died up road
1.55



Initials SGM/1534 SGM/1605



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The drought situation in parts of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has reached desperate proportions...with stock losses mounting as wells and waterholes dry up.

Drought breaking rains which have fallen in many coastal areas, have not reached the north-western areas of the state. At Cameron's Corner, in the extreme north-west, thousands of sheep carcasses litter the countryside. And daily, more and more sheep die of starvation and thirst.

Another problem is the mobs of hungry kangaroos, moving from property to property in search of food. A grazier sometimes finds his property carrying 1,500 kangaroos as well as his sheep.

Sheepmen say they need three to four inches of rain to break the drought. In the meantime, the shrinking waterholes and wells get lower and lower.

The current drought in NSW is considered worse than one seven years ago when the state government paid out 10.5 million dollars in relief.