Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Farmer leans on his Catholic faith as he witnesses the driest conditions in his lifetime

byGuest Contributor
24 December 2019
Reading Time: 7 mins read
AA

Dry stretch: Lyle Winks is a south-east Queensland farmer who says in all his life, almost 79 years, he’s never seen drier times.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Dry stretch: Lyle Winks is a south-east Queensland farmer who says in all his life, almost 79 years, he’s never seen drier times.

Radio personality Donna Lynch sat down with farmer Lyle Winks to talk about faith, family and hard times in drought-ridden country.

Q: Tell us about your property, what do you do? 

A: Well, we just buy steers from the sale yard, then I grow them out to slaughter condition and weight, and then sell them to the abattoir in Ipswich. We had much more country (before) and we ran about 350 head in those days, but subsequently we’ve sold some of that land and now we run, under normal conditions, about 150 head. But at the present, we’re down to 90-odd. 

Q: Have you always lived in this area, tell us about your background?

A: Well, I was born here, and went to school down here … and once we’d finished our education here we had our secondary education at the Christian Brothers in Ipswich.

Q: What did you want to do when you left school?

A: I wanted to go on the land and, as my brother was a veterinary surgeon, I decided I’d like to study agriculture. So I went to Queensland University and studied agriculture and got a job with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, and I was then employed by them for the next 30 years.

Q: How do you feel people on the land are coping?

A: They’re doing it extremely tough. This year everybody’s doing it tough because of the fact that our rainfall here has been way below average.

Q: Have you seen it this bad before? 

Related Stories

East Africa is suffering ‘dire’ drought and facing famine

Josephine Russo celebrates 90th birthday with a joyful heart for family and God

Perpetrators use threats of domestic violence covered in the media to terrorise partners

A: I’ve talked to lots of people in recent weeks about this; I don’t think I have seen it as bad as this in my lifetime and most other people that I talk to, they share those sentiments.

Q: What’s a day like for Lyle Winks? 

A: The alarm goes off at five o’clock and we climb out of bed and have breakfast and then I meet my brother up the road at 6.30am and we start feeding cattle and most of the rest of the day is spent either feeding cattle or going and purchasing fodder, which we feed to the cattle. Over recent weeks we’ve been using turnips and carrots from the farms up Kalbar. But the supply of carrots ran out this week.

Q: What happens now? 

A: We now have to start feeding hay or some other sort of feedstuff that we can find somewhere, hopefully.

Q: You really need the help of local people to help with fruit and vegetables to help the cattle, don’t you? 

A: Well, we talk about this quite often that if it weren’t for Moogerah Dam, the agricultural industries in this area would really be on their knees because that’s what most people are keeping their animals going with at the moment.

Q: Speaking of dams, why haven’t the government taken the bull by the horns, so to speak, and just got on with it and built some decent dams? 

A: I think that it’s a case of putting their own desires ahead of what’s good for the country. The Wolffdene Dam was being put in place and it would’ve solved a lot of the water problems that South East Queensland’s got, but the Labor Government won re-election by saying they would cancel that dam and they’ve done so. A number of other attempts to build dams have been frustrated by the Greens vote saying that it’s going to harm some animals, and I’m a great believer in the philosophy that you can’t have omelettes without breaking eggs.

Q: Alright, you talked before about the day you get up at 5am and go off, do you get a day off? 

A: There’s no such thing as a day off when you’re on the land. The cattle have to be fed every day. You can’t be like the fellow who goes to work five days a week and then he’s got the weekend to enjoy himself; you still have to do it whether it’s Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Good Friday, or whatever.

Q: So the cows don’t know it’s Christmas Day?

A: They sure don’t, and they don’t even get any special treats like most of us do on Christmas Day.

Q: You’re a strong member of your local parish, how do you think your local church and parish are coping with all of what’s going on around them?

A: I think most of them are coping fairly well because there’s a great element of support from one group to another.

Q: You’ve got quite a big family – children, grandchildren.

A: Yeah, my sibling group was six, and five of us are still alive; and Les and I have four children and nine grandchildren. And they’re all – thank God – all healthy and enjoying life.

Q: And does the family come to the farm for Christmas?

A: Yes, they’ll be having Christmas, lunch or dinner, whatever you prefer to call it. And we’ll all be here for a wonderful day together and stay over night and, of course, we have an outdoor Mass at Harrisville on Christmas Eve.

Q: Where do you get your strength from, Lyle?

A: I remember travelling with a fellow that I worked with one time and he said to me, “I envy you, Lyle.” I said, “Why’s that?” He said, “You’ve got faith.” He said, “Whenever I run into a difficult situation, I don’t know where to turn, but nothing seems to phase you because you have faith.” That’s the way I think it is; I think the Good Lord will provide if you have faith in Him and He’s done the right thing by me so far in my life.

Q: Did your faith get passed down from your family?

A: Well, Mum was born a Catholic and she brought us up Catholic. Our father came from Anglican stock and, when he married Mum, that was when it was frowned upon for cross-religious (marriages) and so they were married in the cathedral in Brisbane at a side-altar.

Q: Is that right? 

A: Yes, and his own family shunned him.

Q: Really? And did they end up turning around and coming back? 

A: They eventually came back together, yes, that’s right.

Q: Do you think that’s been the success of life as well, that you’ve got such a great lifelong partner, that you know gets you by? 

A: It’s got a heck of a lot to do with it, that’s for sure.

Q: What about the locals in your area that don’t have the faith like you have and so many people on the land are suffering depression? 

A: I think when you see the number of suicides that are occurring in the country, there is obviously a lack of support for people who are suffering from depression and we certainly do need to get that message out that we’re there with a helping hand. I guess one of the things is to be able to recognise the signs that indicate that people are being stretched to the limit.

Q: Is Lyle ever going to retire? I can hear your wife laughing in the background. 

A: Yeah, you raise that really hairy old chestnut there, Donna. I believe that if you still enjoy doing things, and you feel that you’re making a contribution, then you keep going. And the Good Lord gave me talents and I always understood from Scripture that if you were given talents by God, you make use of them. I’m approaching 79. And so while I’ve still got the ability to do things and while I can still swing my leg across a horse, I’ll still keep climbing on and keeping doing the things I enjoy doing. 

Q: You’re great, good on you. Merry Christmas to you and your family. And thank you for having us at your place and here’s hoping we have some rain.

A: Alleluia. 

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Devitt family waiting for news on dad who has missed 10 Christmas lunches in a row

Next Post

Bishops refocus on evangelisation in wake of a trimmed budget

Guest Contributor

Related Posts

East Africa is suffering ‘dire’ drought and facing famine
News

East Africa is suffering ‘dire’ drought and facing famine

20 April 2022
Family celebrates: Giuseppina (Josephine) Russo (centre, front) with (from left) James, Kyle, Allan and Cathy Waters, Portia and Elliott Hunt and Caroline Russo (front right)
QLD

Josephine Russo celebrates 90th birthday with a joyful heart for family and God

26 May 2021
Perpetrators use threats of domestic violence covered in the media to terrorise partners
QLD

Perpetrators use threats of domestic violence covered in the media to terrorise partners

26 May 2021
Next Post

Bishops refocus on evangelisation in wake of a trimmed budget

New era dawns for Ipswich Catholic community

This Christmas, remember the little baby who lay in the crib

Popular News

  • Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Christian Brothers’ community mourn the passing of Brother Tony White

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Vatican

All Catholics invited to pray rosary for peace with Pope Francis next Tuesday

by Staff writers
27 May 2022
0

By Catholic News Agency THE Vatican is inviting Catholics to join Pope Francis in praying the rosary...

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

27 May 2022
Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

26 May 2022
Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

26 May 2022
Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

26 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping