Yabbies – nature’s quiet critics. 🦞
Three years ago, I bought 67 tiny yabbies from a fishing tackle shop. They were destined as bait, but I added them to the small dam at my farm – an experiment of sorts to see if I could have a self-sustaining food source at the farm (they make delicious eating).
Sure enough, they multiplied in a year. The dam was filled full of yabbies. No feeding is needed once the colony is established. Yabbies are prolific and resilient – but they don’t tolerate neglect. If a dam becomes subpar, they will leave. Yabbies can travel up to 60km in search of better waters. Nature’s quiet critics.
And you do need to manage their numbers, for if there’s no room or care – they’ll start turning on each other. Cannibalism.
This summer – for the first time in five years – the dam went completely dry. I don’t know what happened to my yabbies. Maybe they wised up and moved on. Maybe they didn’t survive. Either way, I am rather sad to see something once thriving, now suddenly empty.
But last weekend, after a few solid days of rain – I came home to find green shoots pushing through parched ground across my farm after a depressingly long streak of dryness. It made my day. A bit of water returning to the dam. A quiet signal, that renewal is possible, though not guaranteed.
People around here often remind me – you can never have enough water tanks. I am entirely dependent on rainwater here (no mains water). It’s incredibly expensive to truck water in when you run out. I got caught out once – but never again. I got an extra water tank. For not-so-rainy days. You always think rain will come – until it doesn’t.
Resilience isn’t built in the drought. It’s built before it. It requires infrastructure, a long view and care. Not just for what’s already been built, but for what’s ahead. Possibilities.
I’m going to dig another dam this year. So I’m prepared to catch more water when it comes. And when this dam fills again, I’ll add more yabbies. Start a fresh colony. Try, try again.
When the rain does come – and it always does, eventually – you have to be ready to hold it. Otherwise, what flows in just runs out again.
Yabbies taught me that. 🦞
