With the ongoing drought badly affecting the area, local residents Nicole Clarke and Harriet Olver organised the event at the tennis courts to encourage people to share their woes and enjoy the day.

"It is so nice to have some time away from the hard physical work of feeding our stock," Nicole said.

The impact of the drought on the village is no different to that across Australia.

The recorded population of Kingstown is 94 people with 46 homes in the town and many were there for the barbecue.

The community indicated they would love to see the tennis courts get an overdue overhaul so that a local tennis competition could start.

And that is a possibility, with the project in the running for funding in the state government's My Community Project, where the tennis courts are competing with other community facilities across the Northern Tablelands for funding.

The My Community project for Kingstown is called "The Big Heart Project" on the website.

In the meantime, the Kingstown community got to enjoy the company of one another and their neighbours, at last month's barbecue.

The meat for the lunch was supplied by Pete's Mount View Butcher in Armidale, who also donated a meat tray to be raffled and help raise funds.

Although the school holidays were still on, teachers attended the lunch and tennis match to support future local initiatives to combat the sadness that comes with a drought.

Although the school holidays were still on, teachers attended the lunch and tennis match to support future local initiatives to combat the sadness that comes with a drought.

The concern about the drought is the mental strain and isolation of farming. local residents would like to bring the old courts back to order so that regular sport can be played.