Farmers and regional towns feel the pinch in the aftermath of ongoing weather events

That is the opinion of Peter Mailler, who is a third generation grain and cattle farmer from Boggabilla.

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"We've seen a fair bit of change over the last 20 to 30 years in terms of weather patterns and season reliability and consistency," Mr Mailler said.

"It's becoming increasingly volatile with extreme events and that's the hardest thing to manage as a farmer.

"A lot of people tell me they don't believe in climate change, but then say 'geez we seem to get a lot more extreme weather events'.

"Well that is climate change and I fall back on the scientific data and what the experts have to say.

"Moree has just been through a flood and whether it's the biggest flooding event or not is kind of irreverent, because it's going to keep happening more frequently.

"We had 11-and-a-half inches of rain on the farm in October and coming into harvest that's a pretty stressful thing to endure."

Mr Mailler said he was able to get through the recent floods without too much damage but was always "anxious" about the next weather event.

"Just because you weren't in Lismore doesn't mean you haven't been affected by floods and it doesn't matter whether you were under a metre of water or two metres of water," he said.

"It's still a devastating experience whether you live on a farm or in town."

A study released by Climate Centre, Climate Council and Beyond Blue last week indicated that more than one-third of survey participants (37%) said there was too little mental health support available to them.

"It's probably a conservative number, I'm sure it's probably more than that," Mr Mailler said.

"Sometimes it's a pretty lonely slog and you need to keep checking that you and your mates are okay.

"Floods and fires take a lot of the focus but droughts can be the most insidious events that happen.

"It's not just farmers, once enough people around town start stressing it flows on to the whole community.

"It's great Beyond Blue and Climate Centre have done some work on it and are raising awareness.

"They've just taken a snapshot and my expectation is we'll see an increase in climate related stress and anxiety.

"Going through these events, how you manage resilience and well-being is something that needs to be resourced ahead of time."

Mr Mailler has experience in the renewable energy sector with his brother David responsible for larger commercial solar farms through the Meralli Projects business.

"A lot of the conversation is ideological, but the cheapest way to provide energy in the long-term future is through renewables," Mr Mailler said.

"If we install renewable hubs close to our regional centres, then we improve power supply over time and a lot of things are already starting to happen there.

"It's going to happen and we're better off doing it ourselves than worrying about foreign investment further down the line," he said.

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