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Article: Australian wheat farmers worry about future after oil-for-food scandal
- Article from:
- AP Worldstream
- Article date:
- April 12, 2006
- Author:
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ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Writer
AP Worldstream
04-12-2006
Dateline: CANBERRA, Australia
The last thing Australian wheat farmer Philip Hill needed, after surviving five years of crippling drought, was a scandal enveloping the country's monopoly wheat seller.
Hill, 54, is struggling through the worst drought that his family can recall since 1927 when they settled in the Kikoira region 700 kilometers (435 miles) southwest of Sydney. The number of farming families in the district have dwindled from 15 to nine as the big dry has taken its financial toll in the past five years.
Those who remain on the land are hoping for rain before June so they can plant a winter crop. While Australia's ...