A lost lamb's high-pitched bleat from her front yard this week was enough to fill NSW farmer Vivien Thomson with dread, transporting her back to the harsh drought years of the last decade.
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"It is distressing ... because you don't like to hear animals in distress," she tells AAP.
"It was lost and it was scared ... it's the sort of feeling and the same emotions that you have when the sheep are chasing you when they're hungry."
The volunteer firefighter gets a similar reaction from smoke, having exhaustingly worked for the Rural Fire Service for nine months during the Black Summer Bushfires.
This week Australians learned that hotter and drier conditions and greater risks of bushfires in the country's east are likely to return, an outlook that fills Ms Thomson with fear.
"The first word that comes to mind is trepidation ... what's going to happen and are we going to be going through it (drought) again? Is it going to be okay, is there enough moisture in the soil?" All questions running through the mixed farmer's thoughts.
The NSW farmer knows more droughts are on the way, and has been preparing her 2600-acre Muttama property near Cootamundra, by building drought lots where sheep can be contained to preserve pasture.
Neighbours are also preparing, with some already placing their orders for feed.
"We'll be coming at haymaking season again in the spring and we'll be making as much hay as we possibly can."
"There are people that I know that are definitely stocking up on hay at the moment," she says.
On her farm she's got around 300 big square bales of silage buried in preparation for drought.
"Nature's changed," she tells AAP.
"I'm hoping that there's enough moisture in the profile now that we can get through."
Further north at Bogabilla near the NSW-Queensland border, Peter Mailler's also been preparing by planting more heat-resilient crops.
Severe drought hit much of eastern and inland Australia for the three years between 2017 and 2019 and was preceded by an exceptionally strong El Nino weather pattern the year before.
"We've made decisions on our farm in preparation ... climate change is real, and the disruption is really significant," he tells AAP.
"I'm anxious constantly about how we lurch from crisis to crisis," Mr Mailler says.
The farmer says neighbours have begun to destock and are also stockpiling feed ahead of the next drought.
Since June 2020, $420 million has been allocated to drought resilience initiatives through the Future Drought Fund, with hundreds of projects supported.
The Albanese government says it's leading the discussion on drought preparedness and response, with consultation on a new drought plan to reopen in 2024.
But Mr Mailler says there is still a lack of sensible policy around building resilience in the agricultural sector.
"Things aren't changing fast enough to be able to allow us to deal with the changing weather patterns," he says.
The grain and beef farmer remembers one year when large areas of his farm remained unplanted, with zero production and ongoing costs, as the conditions made things "hopeless."
He remembers clearly when the mercury hit 47 degrees Celsius, wiping out millions of dollars of crops in one day - it was the 3rd of January 2014.
"That single day caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in productivity," he recalls.
"If a cyclone came over the coast and did as much damage as that heat did in a day it would be regarded as a natural disaster ... but it just went through as a hot day."
"We had crops that were decimated, hundreds of hectares of summer crops that just failed to produce."
Jacki Schirmer from the University of Canberra who specialises in climate change adaptation and resilience says while things are improving Australia is playing catch-up.
"There is a lot of work happening, but it's not necessarily getting out there ... it is running a bit behind at the moment," says Professor Schirmer.
"I do think we can do better at learning from what the farmers around the country are doing and what they're finding is working and not working."
"Some of the farmers I work with have been talking about how their drought preparation strategies got washed away by floods - and are now thinking about how to be resilient to multiple types of extreme weather simultaneously."
CSIRO scientist Chris Chapman says research indicates that climate change is making the El Nino weather pattern worse.
"The frequency and intensity of El Nino and La Nina events has been increasing," he says.
And he says while there is an increased likelihood that hotter and drier conditions are on the way it is not guaranteed.
"Every El Nino event is different," Dr Chapman says.
"It's very difficult to have an idea about what the impact of this event will be until it really starts going."
But former NSW fire chief and Climate Councillor Greg Mullins is less optimistic, and says there is a real sense of "here we go again."
"We're in a dangerous situation," he warns.
"In a couple of years we can have another black summer ... if we go into El Nino it could bring drought conditions, it would only take 12 to 18 months to dry out."
The founding member of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action was part of the group who warned the previous coalition government of the impending black summer fire danger.
Australian Associated Press
