Some are calling it the start of the end for the North West town of Bourke, but the patriarch of a well-known local clan reckons it is more a new era than judgement day.

The Pratten family have sold their 48,000-hectare property, “Nulty”, where they ran 10,000 Merino sheep and 300 to 400 head of Santa Gertrudis cattle alongside the high-profile Toorale Station, which was sold to the State Government a week before they moved out.

The family have shifted now to the much wetter Mid North Coast.

Their 200ha farm at Taree is 240 times smaller than their previous plot on the road west of Bourke and is located almost 900 kilometres south-east of their home of 30 years in the North West.

Peter Pratten, 53, said his new property at Taree was on “pretty country“ and he had the option of sub-dividing and selling it.

Thirty years ago there were three clubs and seven pubs at Bourke and now there is one club and three pubs.

The number of sheep the shire should be able to sustain is 900,000 but now there were just 225,000, while the two-legged population had dropped 22 per cent from 2001 to 2006 and sits at just under 3000.

“It appears as though there’s been a big exodus,” said fourth generation grazier, Peter, who raised a pair of “free-range” sons on “Nulty” with his wife, Maureen.

“If you want to get bigger you stay here and keep buying up country and keep going around and around.”

Despite the seemingly bleak outlook, the future of Bourke is not as pessimistic as the statistics and the media portray, according to Peter, who is leaving for a variety of reasons, including a labour shortage, the need for a lifestyle change and, of course, the lack of water in recent years.

Bourke still has some of the cheapest agricultural country, with land selling for about $50 a hectare in a district where one sheep is run on four hectares.

“That’s $200 a sheep area compared with $800 a sheep area in Narromine.

“Bourke’s strengths are its people – they’ve got bonding and friendships you don’t find down inside – and the agriculture.”