PIP COURTNEY, PRESENTER: But first today we travel to Western Australia's wheatbelt for a disturbing story about a farmer's worst nightmare, being evicted from the family farm.

Years of drought have taken their toll, with WA's farmers racking up debts worth nearly $14 billion. There was some relief last season with a bumper crop helping grain growers pay off a fraction of this debt. But for some, it was too late, as Sean Murphy reports.

SEAN MURPHY, REPORTER: These are the remains of a record harvest. Locals at Kondinin in the eastern wheatbelt of Western Australia say they had their best-ever crop last year, helping return an estimated $5 billion across the State.

PETER REPACHOLI, "PALOMAR" KONDININ: Seventy-three - I think it was 73 - this paddock here went 17 bags to an acre.

SEAN MURPHY: Wow.

PETER REPACHOLI: My father said, 'Have a good look at it.' He said, 'You won't see that again. Maybe you won't see it in your lifetime.' Well, we just had one.

PIP COURTNEY: Despite some hail damage, Peter Repacholi had a bumper year, pulling off about $800,000 worth of grain. But the 62-year-old says he won't see a cent of it.

PETER REPACHOLI: The bank has taken all the grain. They came in virtually before harvest. I harvested the crop. I've had no payments or I've been working on the farm for over four months now with no income... no income coming to me.

SEAN MURPHY: Worse still, after 102 years on the same farm, his family is now being evicted. Bankwest went to the West Australian Supreme Court to have the Repacholis evicted from their 4,000 hectare mixed farm. Debts totalling $3.5 million became too much of a risk for the bank, which called in receivers last November.

Do you accept any personal responsibility for your predicament?

PETER REPACHOLI: No, I don't think - no. I don't accept it, because I'm - I'm fighting weather conditions as well, like many other farmers. This is very heavy country and needs a lot of moisture. And I've had frosts - I had 1,500 acres in 2008 frosted. They were very good crops, but you still have to harvest them to cut the stubbles out for the following years.

SEAN MURPHY: But aren't they just the vagaries of farming?

PETER REPACHOLI: Yes. Yes, it is and it is now. It's too much involved cost-wise and not getting returns.

SEAN MURPHY: Peter Repacholi was running the farm with his son Michael. They were spending about $600,000 a year in operating costs. A third of that was their annual interest bill. Last June, the bank ramped their rate up from 8.5 per cent to 13.62 per cent when they deemed them a higher credit risk. Now they expect the bank to sell their grain, farm equipment, land and livestock at well below market value.

PETER REPACHOLI: I don't think I'll walk away with anything, but the original budget which has run with stock, machinery, land values, through the bank, land values, was $5 million. This farm, everything on it, is worth $5 million. They want their percentage. They're not really worried how they get it. But we have offered to buy X amount of dollars out or buy the home farm back, but they're not listening. They just want you evicted. That's all they're doing to you.

(Sound of applause at agriculture meeting)

SEAN MURPHY: Last April, Peter Repacholi joined about 1,000 farmers, business owners and community leaders for an 'agriculture in crisis' meeting at Merredin in the central wheatbelt. They were calling for a new approach to drought assistance and government action on interest rates.

SPEAKER: For example, the central bank should reduce interest rates to be internationally comparable.

SEAN MURPHY: The recent harvest has eased some of the pressure, but 12 months after the meeting, farmers in WA are still waiting for the Federal Government's new drought assistance package and the promise of low-interest concessional loans.

West Australian farmers owe the banks about $14 billion and even with a record 16 million tonne grain harvest last year, they were only able to pay back about $1 billion. Now, between 280 and 300 farmers are struggling to get finance from their banks for this year's cropping program.

DR GRAHAM JACOBS, WA MEMBER FOR EYRE: I've had farmers, as you've elucidated, whose interest rate goes from 8 per cent to 12 per cent to 13 per cent and sometimes to 17 per cent. Now that will lead to only one result. As I've often said, 25 years ago, we had around 20,000 cereal growers in Western Australian. Today, we've got about 4,400. Now, you know, how much more culling are we going to do, if you like, when people say, 'Oh well, you know, the bottom 10 per cent have to go because they're not viable.' They're not viable because of the banking system and the lending systems, not appropriate and not suitable for that industry.

(Dr Graham Jacobs speaking in WA Parliament)

The topic of my grievance is receivership in farm business and their fees and charges.

SEAN MURPHY: West Australian Liberal MP Dr Graham Jacobs represents some of the most marginal parts of the wheatbelt. And he's campaigned against what he calls a 'cosy relationship' between the banks and the receivers.

DR GRAHAM JACOBS: Once farmers do get to the receivership process, if they've, say, got 30 per cent equity left in their farm, the receivership process chews up the remaining equity and it's tragic that farmers have to go, but even more tragic when they do go, there's nothing left. The cosy relationship between the receiverships - basically the big four in Western Australia, solicitors who are into receivership and the big four banks - a cosy relationship and as I've said in my grievance in Parliament, we actually transfuse the remaining equity funds into St Georges Terrace.

(Sean Murphy and Peter Repacholi driving)

SEAN MURPHY: This is one of the original paddocks that your grandfather developed?

PETER REPACHOLI: Yes, Sean, it was all cleared. Mostly by axe and hot fire through it.

SEAN MURPHY: It would have looked like the bit of woodland behind us?

PETER REPACHOLI: Behind us, yes. In front of us up here as well. It's all heavy timber.

SEAN MURPHY: Peter Repacholi says banks may have understood farming better when the family property, Palomar, was developed a century ago. Now they just understand money. He says the terms of his eviction order did not make any provision for his 2,500 sheep, including 1,600 pregnant ewes.

So Peter, under the terms of the judgment that was sought by the bank, what happens to your sheep?

PETER REPACHOLI: Well, first eight days I wasn't allowed to care for them. I'm lucky there's water here on dams. But I wasn't allowed to step over the fence to a trough to look after my stock. That was ruled with the courts. So, lucky the sheep are alright at this stage.

SEAN MURPHY: The bank has since allowed Mr Repacholi to care for the sheep, but he says the initial order showed how out of touch the bank and receivers were with the realities of farming.

PETER REPACHOLI: At this stage, I'm still tending to sheep now, but they didn't even know I had sheep on the farm and that's 4.5 months ago. We need a different banking system, not just for shareholders. In a sense, my predicament, to ease you out of the farming, you know, not a red hot sale saying 'This land's worth $400 an acre it's going to be sold for $200.' In that sense, my value of my farm is at $1.5 million written off and the banks just take their share. So there's a debt still owing.

SEAN MURPHY: Bankwest says it can't comment on the Repacholi case because of its confidentiality obligations, but it says it's committed to working closely with its farming customers, as it has done since it was established as WA's rural bank in 1895.

Across the wheatbelt, seeding traditionally begins this month. For farmers awaiting drought relief to help fund their planting programs, there are fears the Commonwealth's new drought relief program will come too late. The WA Government says it's still waiting on the criteria and guidelines for the package. The State's share will be about $28 million, but it's clear there will be no support for farming businesses deemed unviable.

KEN BASTON, WA AGRICULTURE MINISTER: They are businesses and they need to survive in a business sense. So, in many cases, you know, quite often maybe too much capital isn't borrowed, but you only have to go in the city and you see lots of shops that are shut, you know, because they've gone down a similar investment line that didn't work out. And so yes, I guess what I'm saying is that business can be tough.

(Ken Baston speaking to audience)

KEN BASTON: You wouldn't believe this, but this is actually my first visit to the Wagin Woolorama.

PIP COURTNEY: In WA farming circles, all roads run to Wagin's Woolorama and Agriculture Minister Ken Baston was at last month's famous field day talking about the State's preparedness for a foot-and-mouth outbreak.

But the State Government is also keen to push the message that farmers are in the export business and that means bigger farms, bigger machines and fewer farm workers.

KEN BASTON: I might be going a bit far out here, but eventually you'll see harvesters that you can probably control from your front door. So I think the whole industry is moving down that line and that's just something - you can't get in the way of progress unless we actually stop mechanisation.

SEAN MURPHY: WA's Farmers Federation says fly-in fly-out farmers are already a reality.

DALE PARK, WA FARMERS' FEDERATION: So now we've got a situation within the industry where we've got what I call family corporates, almost. They are pretty big enterprises, but they are family-owned. They will probably only have anything up to three or four permanent employees and that includes a couple of the owners. But they will bring staff in for the peak times, so seeding and harvest will be a big influx, so they might employ five permanents and they will bring another 10 to 15 in those really peak periods, so it's a real change of how country WA is structured, which is going through a hell of a change at the moment.

SEAN MURPHY: Across the wheatbelt, communities are withering. The State Government is trying to develop 'supertowns' as part of a decentralisation policy. But it says it's inevitable some small towns will go.

KEN BASTON: I don't think we can actually say, 'We need to, you know, this town will survive.' Of course, some will and a lot of them will value-add. Others will be close enough to Perth to actually have people to be able to access all the services they want in Perth and then come back and as a lifestyle choice choose - live in a regional area.

(Community gathering)

ALLEN SMOKER: You guys, we're all here to show you support because in all of this, the most important thing is individuals. To the Kondinin community, this is a show of strength in my view. And it's something that is absolutely essential that we do. So to Peter and Angela in particular, hope you appreciate it.

SEAN MURPHY: Kondinin and surrounding towns may be small, but the residents are big-hearted. Dozens flocked to support the Repacholi family when they heard about the foreclosure.

ALLEN SMOKER, KONDININ SHIRE PRESIDENT: It's a very awkward situation for the whole community. I felt today as I drove in to the farm, I think you have a look at the farm, there's nothing obviously wrong here. The farm looks in good shape. It's just a situation that's arisen over ten pretty difficult seasons, particularly in this strip of heavy country where Peter's farm is situated and from the community point of view, we just are strongly here to support individuals because they need support in this situation.

PETER REPACHOLI: I'm very humbled because this shows you the true bush spirit. Someone's been kicked in the stomach, people come out to support, because a lot of those people are hurting as well.

SEAN MURPHY: The impact on the Repacholi family has been immense. 32-year-old Michael Repacholi reluctantly took on an apprenticeship last year and gave up a lifelong dream of running the family farm.

(Speaking to Michael Repacholi) You alright?

MICHAEL REPACHOLI: Yes. Alright.

SEAN MURPHY: How tough was it when your dad actually came to you and said, 'Look, you're going to have to get a job off-farm?'

MICHAEL REPACHOLI: Yes, it was very tough. Um... Yes, I didn't know what I was going to do, what sort of job. I didn't want to go to the mines or anything, so yes, it was just... yes, I was just in this world of didn't know where I was.

SEAN MURPHY: Had you always wanted to be a farmer?

MICHAEL REPACHOLI: Yes, absolutely. Um... Probably ever since I was eight or nine. Just driving the tractors and stuff when I could and yes, it's always been a dream.

SEAN MURPHY: Feelings are running high for other family members, including 93-year-old Helen Repacholi, who has lived on Palomar most of her life.

HELEN REPACHOLI: Well, I feel pretty dreadful. Especially for my father-in-law, my husband and Pete and now Michael. And all the rest of the family. You know, it's a long, long time, 102 years, to be on a property. It's all been cleared by hand with them all. It was very, very hard work and tough times.

SEAN MURPHY: Angela Repacholi has been helping care for her mother-in-law, who now lives in town. She's worried that they may not be able to live nearby. But her immediate concern is for her husband.

(Peter and dog getting into truck)

PETER REPACHOLI: Good boy!

ANGELA REPACHOLI: He's all over the shop. He's angry one minute and then he's, um... It's inconsistent. So one minute he thinks, 'Oh, it will be alright.' and the next he's, um... Anger's a big one. He's angry about what's happened. Then he feels like he's let everyone down. And then the next thing he's just tired. He's tired of it all. Um... I'm worried. I'm worried. I just want him to get through this next couple of weeks.

SEAN MURPHY: The Repacholi's are a close family and their community support is strong, but for many farmers caught in a spiral of debt, mental health is a growing issue.

JO DRAYTON, RURAL COMMUNITY SUPPORT SERVICE: What we find is during crisis people tend to normalise feelings, so disrupted sleep, inability to concentrate, inability to make decisions. Maybe sudden outbursts, they tend to normalise that. And I think it's through education and reducing stigma around mental health is that we've actually seen individuals have some insight and say you know, 'Actually, I'm not travelling all that well.'

SEAN MURPHY: Jo Drayton runs a mental health service covering 27 shires across the wheatbelt and Great Southern. She says there's been an increase in demand from farmers and also the people dealing with farmers.

JO DRAYTON: Part of our core business is the delivery of our mental health first aid courses. We've seen financial institutions, agribusiness agencies send their personnel along so that they have those skills that when they are out on a farm chatting to individuals, that they can possibly identify somebody who is at risk and then also then know the correct channels and what services to access to provide support to those individuals if they were concerned.

PETER REPACHOLI: Even the doc wanted to see me. I said, 'No, I'm right. I don't need tablets yet.' You know. I'll fight to keep my sanity.

SEAN MURPHY: Peter Repacholi is being stoic. Last week he was still trying to negotiate with the bank to at least keep the home property so that family members could be near his late father's memorial.

(Helen Repacholi and family visiting memorial)

WOMAN: Looks beautiful out there, doesn't it?

HELEN REPACHOLI: Mmm-hmm.

WOMAN 2: He's got his paddocks and he's got his... water and he's got his house. He's got his farm.

SEAN MURPHY: The family may be losing its farm, but not its memories.

HELEN REPACHOLI: No, that's right. They can take the farm, but not the memory and they'll never be able to take my husband because he remains here. Forever.

PIP COURTNEY: Last Thursday, Peter and Angela Repacholi walked off their farm and are now staying in temporary accommodation in Kondinin. They're continuing to negotiate with Bankwest to settle their debt and buy back part of the family farm.