Mungindi thrives, population swells, as workers arrive to harvest bumper crops

ABC NEWS (Australia)

While many farmers continue to do it tough, a small town on the New South Wales–Queensland border is booming, thanks to a spectacular harvest. With near record crops coming off, Mungindi is celebrating the good times.

Transcript

00:00As the sun rises, harvesters are already hard at work.

00:07They're going day and night to get as much of the winter grain off as possible.

00:13Consistent rainfall has led to a standout season.

00:17It's a fantastic year and the yields are really good and harvest has been relatively smooth so far.

00:23A successful harvest isn't just good for growers, it also helps the local community.

00:28Mug and Die had just over 600 residents at the last census, but that number explodes with out-of-town labour this time of year.

00:37Looking at our keg usage back in drought, we'd do six kegs, maybe six a week, whereas now we're doing upwards of 35.

00:46From the cafes to the servos and local agronomy businesses, everyone is busy during harvest time.

00:53There are people about, there's money to be spent, the community is really benefiting from the good season that we've had.

01:01Not everywhere has been as lucky as these farms.

01:05Frost is expected to knock out more than one million tonnes of grain across southern NSW, South Australia and Victoria.

01:14That means that here in northern NSW, they're doing the heavy lifting, with growers working long hours to get grain in the silos.

01:23The chickpea yields are fantastic, up near the record yields we've had and the wheat's up near the record yields we've had on this farm.

01:32In the past five years, Mug and Die has seen drought, COVID-19 border restrictions and its only supermarket burnt down.

01:41But 2024 is looking like a year to remember, for the better.

01:46To see everyone have a crop, like the town's alive.

01:50With summer on the way, everyone's hoping the good luck continues for the next lot of crops.

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