It was the moment Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, a renowned climate change sceptic, confronted the reality of global warming.

Over two days in early April, Good Weekend writer Frank Robson and photographer Nic Walker accompanied Mr Joyce on a swing through the drought-ravaged backblocks between Armidale and Tamworth. Mr Joyce took the pair to his parent's property in Rutherglen late on Saturday afternoon.

Leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is facing the reality of climate change Credit:Nic Walker

Robson writes in the Good Weekend this Saturday that not for the first time, Mr Joyce anguished over how much work the place needs. At one stage, he writes, I notice him standing beside the ever-diminishing creek, near his one-time childhood Hobbit hole, looking as though he might cry.

"It's the driest I've ever seen it," Mr Joyce said. "And then, as if suddenly possessed by the valley's ghosts (or something equally whoopee), Barnaby Joyce takes a tentative step into the realm of scientific consensus. "When I look at this," he says, shaking his head, "I start to wonder whether climate change might really be happening."