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Story: Rural language

The big dry

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The big dry

Farmers often refer to extreme weather events by understatements like ‘the big dry’. This is Waikato farmer Steven Stark, showing how parched the soil became during the 2008 drought.

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New Zealand Herald

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by Chris Skelton

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How to cite this page

Dianne Bardsley, Rural language – Farming difficulties, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/18606/the-big-dry (accessed 10 June 2026).

Story by Dianne Bardsley, published 1 March 2009.