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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Grain farmer Eddie Valks hosted his daughter's wedding on his 2,000 acre spread northwest of Sydney, complete with bride and groom sailing off on a small lake. Four years later the lake is gone, dried out by Australia's worst drought on record.
"If the wedding guests from the cities saw the place now, they'd be shocked," said the 61-year-old Valks.
Drought and flood have been a familiar feature of Australia's vast cattle and sheep ranches and shimmering grain fields ever since the first Europeans settled here more than 200 years ago. But this "big dry" is the worst and widest, officials say, and poses a massive economic challenge.
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