Tenterfield: A Dry Summer Starts in the Soil Before It Starts in the Sky
Preparing Tenterfield’s farms and gardens for the summer of 2026–27 means looking below the surface now.
Tenterfield knows dry country.
It also knows something that is easily forgotten after a run of reasonable seasons: drought does not begin on the day the rain stops. Its impact is determined months earlier by what condition the soil was in when the dry arrived.
That matters particularly as we head towards the summer of 2026–27.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s long-range outlook issued on 20 August is not yet a definitive December-to-February forecast for Tenterfield. It would be wrong to pretend otherwise. What it does show is enough reason to prepare. Rainfall through spring is forecast to be below average across parts of eastern Australia, daytime temperatures are likely to be above average south of the tropics, and the tropical Pacific is expected to continue warming, with El Niño likely to peak in late spring or summer.
The Bureau itself cautions that even a strong El Niño does not automatically translate into severe dry conditions everywhere.
So this is not a prediction of catastrophe. It is an argument for preparation.
And in Tenterfield, preparation should start with soil.
Tenterfield does not have one soil
Drive across the district and the ground beneath you changes.
Granite and trap-derived soils predominate across much of Tenterfield Shire, while more productive basalt soils occur in places such as the Acacia Plateau. Immediately around Tenterfield there are finer granite soils, with coarser granite and stony trap occurring elsewhere. The heavier country generally has very different water and nutrient behaviour from the lighter granitic areas.
That distinction becomes extremely important when rainfall becomes unreliable.
Granite-derived soils can be coarse and sandy, meaning water can move through them quickly and their capacity to store nutrients and moisture may be limited. Other Tenterfield soils can hard-set, restrict infiltration or develop structural problems that cause rainfall to move across the surface instead of into the profile.
Tenterfield Council’s own soil documentation notes the strong influence of granite and trap geology in the district and the importance of soil type and depth in determining water-holding capacity.
This means there is no single bag of something that “fixes Tenterfield soil”.
You have to understand what the soil is doing.
The rainfall figure does not tell the whole story
We tend to measure drought by the amount of rain that falls.
Plants experience drought according to the amount of water they can actually access.
Those are not the same thing.
Fifty millimetres falling onto a well-structured, covered soil with good pore space, active roots and stable aggregates is very different from fifty millimetres hitting bare, compacted or poorly structured ground.
One stores an opportunity.
The other can lose it in runoff, evaporation or rapid drainage beyond a shallow root zone.
NSW soil guidance describes structure as fundamental to infiltration, water storage and root growth. Larger pores allow rainfall to enter the profile, while intermediate pores hold water that plants can use. Soil organisms, roots, fungi and organic matter all contribute to the formation and stability of those aggregates.
That is why one of the most useful questions a Tenterfield farmer or gardener can ask this spring is not simply:
How much rain did I get?
It is:
Where did the rain go?
Biology is part of the water system
People still tend to separate soil biology from discussions about water. That is a mistake.
The organisms living around plant roots are part of the physical engineering of soil.
Bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods and earthworms are involved in breaking down organic matter, cycling nutrients, binding particles into aggregates, creating channels through the profile and supporting root development.
NSW Government soil biology guidance specifically links diverse biological activity with improved aggregation, soil structure, water-holding capacity, stronger roots and resilience to drought and erosion.
This does not mean that microbes manufacture rain. They do something much more practical. They help build the soil architecture that determines what happens when rain arrives.
That distinction matters.
Water falling from the sky is weather.
Water entering, moving through and remaining available within soil is soil function.
For Tenterfield, the months before summer are the time to work on that function.
Do not wait until the paddock is brown
There is little sense trying to rebuild a living soil system after plants are already shutting down and the ground has become hot and hard.
Preparation needs to begin while there is still moisture, active plant growth and carbon moving from green leaves into roots.
Plants feed the soil biological community through photosynthesis. Sugars and other carbon compounds are released around the roots, supporting microbial activity in the rhizosphere. In return, that biological community participates in nutrient cycling, aggregation and the maintenance of the root environment.
That gives Tenterfield growers a window now. Keep living roots working for as long as practical. Protect groundcover.
Avoid unnecessary disturbance. Keep organic material cycling back through the system.
Look for compaction before summer exposes it. Examine whether your rainfall is infiltrating or running away.
Dig a hole and look at the root profile instead of judging the paddock only from the ute.
Take a handful of soil. Does it crumble into aggregates, or collapse into powder? Are the roots travelling down through the profile or turning sideways at a compacted layer? Is there biological activity? Does water disappear into the soil when it rains, or pond and run?
NSW’s own advice for rebuilding soil function begins with many of these same fundamentals: maintain living roots, increase plant diversity, add organic matter, protect soil structure and monitor what is changing.
Carbon does not build soil by itself
There is another distinction worth making as drought preparation becomes fashionable.
Carbon is important, but carbon sitting in soil is not the entire story.
Carbon doesn't build soil. Biology builds soil. Carbon becomes stable because living microbial communities create the architecture that holds it.
Roots, microorganisms, organic material, mineral particles, air and water have to function together. The same applies to nutrients.
A soil test may show minerals in the ground, but plants still depend upon physical access, root activity and biological processes that cycle and transform nutrients into usable forms.
Nutrients don't feed plants. Soil biology unlocks them. Without the living workforce beneath the surface, minerals remain largely unavailable.
That is why simply increasing fertiliser while the physical and biological condition of the soil continues to decline can become an expensive treadmill.
The first question should be: what is preventing this soil from functioning?
Summer resilience is built centimetre by centimetre
There will always be limits. A biologically active soil cannot make a granite-derived soil behave like deep basalt. It cannot remove the realities of rainfall, heat, geology or drought.
But it can change how effectively the soil you already have functions. A better aggregated soil can provide more pathways for rainfall to enter. A deeper root system can explore a greater volume of soil.
Groundcover can protect the surface from heat and erosion. Organic material can contribute to moisture retention and biological habitat.
Living soil organisms can continue the nutrient cycling and structural processes upon which those roots depend. That is resilience in the practical sense. Not pretending drought does not matter.
Making much better use of every opportunity nature gives you.
Before summer arrives, test your own ground
Tenterfield farmers, gardeners and landholders can learn an enormous amount without sophisticated equipment.
After the next reasonable rain, watch where the water goes.
Dig twenty or thirty centimetres down.
Look for root depth.
Look for worms and other visible soil life. Smell the soil.
Check whether it breaks naturally into crumbs and aggregates.
Compare covered ground with bare ground.
Compare an area that has been lightly managed with one regularly driven over or heavily disturbed.
And most importantly, start taking photographs and recording what you see.
Because improving soil is not a belief system.
It should be observable.
If the summer of 2026–27 does become difficult, the most valuable rainfall Tenterfield receives may not necessarily be the biggest fall.
It may be the rain that actually gets into the ground and stays there long enough for a plant to use it.
That work starts before summer.
It starts underground.
I’ll be speaking in Tenterfield about living soil biology, water, plant resilience and the practical signs we can all learn to read in our own soil. If you are a farmer, gardener or simply interested in becoming more resilient in a changing climate, come along, bring your questions and let’s talk about what is actually happening underground.
Bronwyn Holm, Founder, Earthfood®
Farmers' Friend • Gardeners' Guide • Soil Advocate • Growers' Voice
© 2026 Bronwyn Holm. All rights reserved. Earthfood® • Earthfood Pantry™ • Earthfood Conversations™ Shop living soil microbes at yourearthfood.com.au