When The Rain Finally Came: What The Recent Drought Taught Me About Water, Catchments, and Caring for Country

Helen Charles
Dec 10
4 min read

I never thought I’d say this with more conviction - I love it when it rains!!!

This year, Western Victoria was hit by a severe drought, and our dams dried up completely. At first, we suspected a leak in the dam wall, but as we looked across the parched landscape and saw neighbouring farms’ dams empty as well, it became clear we were experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades.

It was the cracked, dry basin of the dam that made me stop and truly think about water -Where does it come from? Where does it go? And how can something so essential disappear so fast?

I realised that if I wanted answers, I needed to understand how water flows through our landscape.

The dry basin of our dam during the recent drought in Western Victoria

What is a Catchment?

A catchment is simply an area of land where water collects when it rains. Gravity pulls the water downhill into creeks, rivers, groundwater, reservoirs - and eventually to our taps.

Catchments are shaped by nature over thousands (or millions!) of years. Humans don’t make them… but we certainly influence them.

Think of a catchment as a giant natural filter:

Healthy forests, wetlands, and soils slow the flow of water.
Vegetation traps sediments and pollutants.
Clean water enters creeks and reservoirs

Every one of us lives in a catchment – even if it's just our own roof feeding a water tank.

Worms in the ground - a good sign! — Worms in the ground - always a good sign!

When the dams dried up

When our dam dried up, it left behind more than cracked mud. It revealed what had been happening on the land around us.

As water moves across a catchment, it carries everything on the surface with it.

Sediments – soil, sand, dust

These make water cloudy and can smother aquatic plants and fish eggs. During the drought, neighbouring properties were grazed bare as animals searched for any green pick. Without ground cover, soil is washed straight into waterways.

Nutrients – nitrogen and phosphorus

Mostly from fertilisers and animal poo. Too many nutrients = algal blooms.

When rain finally hit our empty dam it was full of animal droppings and other nutrients. This caused a thick algal bloom cowering the water. Luckily, heavy rains flushed it out and the frogs started croaking.

Pathogens (germs)

These can contaminate drinking water and watering holes. In the drought we sadly saw livestock that had died in the shallows of dams - heartbreaking and a brutal reminder of how harsh our environment can be. The stinky water was putrid and made the water undrinkable for livestock and wildlife.

Chemicals & pesticides

Herbicides, fuel, grease, and household cleaners can wash downhill. We avoid this by using biodegradable cleaning products and cycling our greywater through composting beds.

Heavy metals

From dump sites, machinery, vehicles and old sheds. It’s astonishing how often I see old car parts and other junk piles left to rust, releasing lead, copper, zinc, and more into the soil.

Litter & microplastics

We live 5 km up a 4WD track… and still find plastic drifting in on the wind or washed in by water. Picking up a plastic bag that crumbles into tiny fragments is devastating and a harsh reminder that microplastics go everywhere - from soils to streams to the digestive systems of wildlife.

An Algal Bloom on the surface of our dam

So What Can We Do?

When we care for the land, we care for the water.

Healthy land = healthy water.

Here are some of the things we’re doing on our 45-acre property - and that anyone can do, on any scale:

1. Restore and protect vegetation

Our farm sits in the Goldfields bioregion, once dominated by Grassy Dry Forests. After the Gold Rush and decades of grazing, much of this ecosystem is depleted. Trees were cut, soils were exposed, and erosion began.

Vegetation slows water, stabilises soil, and filters pollutants. So we’ve been:

Direct seeding native plants
Removing invasive weeds
Looking at the natural water flow paths and how we can plant along them

2. Reduce erosion

Bare soil equals sediment in waterways. We’ve been adding:

Logs
Swales
Erosion-control structures like large rocks

These slow the water, encourage filtration, and stop soil from washing away.

3. Capture water wisely

While catchments are natural, the water storages we build within them are not.

Man-made structures include:

Dams
Water tanks
Reservoirs
Pipes and channels
Stormwater drains

On our farm, we collect roof runoff in tanks and store water in two dams - precious supplies during dry years for us and the local wildlife.

4. Observe and learn through citizen science

We use FrogID and iNaturalist to track the biodiversity on our land. These observations help us spot changes early and respond before issues worsen.

Can Humans Reduce Droughts?

We can't control rain - but we can influence how landscapes cope with drought.

Healthy catchments hold water longer.
Ground cover keeps soil moist.
Vegetation shades creeks and slows evaporation.
Biodiverse ecosystems are more resilient!

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of droughts, but by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and restoring landscapes, we can ease their impacts.

A gorgeous Shingleback Lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) — Biodiverse landscapes are more resilient - a gorgeous Shingleback Lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) in the grass on our farm

Appreciation for Water

Droughts are part of living in Australia. They’ve been here long before us, and they will always come and go. But this recent drought really opened my eyes. Water is precious - far more precious than I realised.

I can’t control how much rain falls in on our farm. But I can control how well we look after the land that catches, holds, and filters that water. And that’s something every one of us can do, wherever we live.