Listen: Bush poet Murray Hartin's fears for Aussie farmers

Murray Hartin. Photo / Still image from Youtube

Bush poet Murray Hartin is concerned that Australian farmers don't talk about issues from generation to generation.

As a result he believes some farmers going through the current drought may not know their parents have experienced the same hardship.

"When it comes to them [farmers] they're saying 'Well how come I can't do it?,' yet their fathers and their grandfathers and their great-grandfathers and mothers have all been through it, yet it doesn't get communicated. So there's a bit of a sense of failure there."

Hartin spoke to The Country's Jamie Mackay about how the worst drought in 100 years is affecting farmers and rural communities in Australia.

Listen below:

Although drought is part of farming life in Australia, Hartin says the Government needs to "get on board," to help with "drought-proofing when times are good."

"Farmers and the Government have got to start putting away silage and putting away hay and being a bit more forward-thinking in how they do this - because it's going to happen, we know it's going to happen - we just don't know how long it's going to last."

Hartin's poignant piece Rain from Nowhere struck a chord with rural New Zealanders last time he was on The Country, and he says he likes to spread the word with his poetry, while using humour to get rural people together.

"Getting together is a huge thing in a tough time ... just getting people back to the local hall. Friends getting together to know that they're all in this together is very important."

Finally in today's interview Hartin reads his poem The Farmer - The Pearl of Them All, which he based on Scottish-Australian narrative poet William Henry Ogilvie's The Pearl of Them All.

Although the poem is about his home country, Hartin encourages Kiwi listeners to substitute the word "Australia" with "New Zealand."

Read Murray Hartin's poem The Farmer - The Pearl of Them All on his website here.