Droughts Begin Easing In Eastern Australia

Left: Current rainfall maps from the Bureau of Meteorology.





Many areas suffer still - SW Australia; Murray-Darling basin, etc., even Tasmania. Still, the rains have begun making an impact....

THE grass on Craig Mitchell's property near Cooma in southeast NSW is over the fence - and he's "over the moon".

"It's unbelievable, just unbelievable," said the wool grower, standing amid the lush grass on his property, Gaerloch.

Mr Mitchell's area has been in and out of drought since 2002 and was most recently drought-declared in March last year. But a week ago, after the rains, the tag was lifted from Cooma, along with 12 per cent of NSW.

Mr Mitchell called the recent rains the best Christmas gift farming families could receive.

Winter brought snow and rain to the Monaro region, but in such a cold climate grass only really begins to grow in October. Spring was dry. Then it started raining in November. "We've had 136mm in November, and since then we've had 55mm in December, so it has been very good," Mr Mitchell said.

"At this stage we have a couple of spots where the grass is over the fence. We're usually struggling to get it over the bottom wire, let alone across the top wire. It's just amazing how it has grown in the last five weeks." The rains have come at a good time for the wool growers. The wool selling year closed on a high last week.

"It's been fantastic," Mr Mitchell said. "We're getting grass and good seasons and good wool prices. I feel pretty confident about farming. There is a little bit of money to do the things you want to do, like fixing up the drive up to the house."

Blair Trewin, from the National Climate Centre, said that over November and December, southeastern Australia had enjoyed consistent above-average rainfalls.

"Queensland has been doing OK since June, although as the wet season picks up the totals involved have got bigger," Dr Trewin said. "November was above average over most of NSW and also most of Victoria and eastern South Australia."

This month NSW reduced the area drought-declared from 81.9per cent to 69.4 per cent. Last week 16 areas were moved from the drought-declared list, including parts of Bombala, Braidwood, Casino, Central Tablelands, Cooma, Coonabarabran, part of Goulburn, part of the Hunter, Kempsey, Molong, Mudgee, northern NSW, part of the northern slopes, the south coast, Tamworth and part of Yass.

In Queensland, 62.4 per cent of the state, plus five individual properties, were drought-declared at November 30, slightly more than in October.

The National Climate Centre's outlook for January to March is for a good chance of above-average rainfall for southeast Queensland, northeast NSW and southwest Western Australia. But for the rest of the continent, including the Murray-Darling Basin, the outlook is for a drier than normal three months.

Dr Trewin said the outlook was consistent with a La Nina event. He pointed out southeast Queensland was wettest over summer.

Dr Trewin said that during La Nina events, there tended to be a lot of easterly and northeasterly systems over southeast Australia in summer and autumn.

"That is very good for rainfall on the east coast and areas that get moisture from that direction, but by the time the easterly-to-northern flow gets as far as Victoria and South Australia, it has often lost quite a bit of its moisture," he said.

...The La Nina rains have been filling Sydney's dams, which are up to 60 per cent.

But Brisbane's dams are still low, on 20 per cent, Melbourne's are on 39 per cent, Canberra's dam is nearly 44 per cent full and the Murray River storages (Dartmouth, Hume, Lake Victoria and Menindee Lakes) are at 20 per cent.