NSW Rains

The report below was for NW New South Wales last month, but it still remains valid. Some parts of eastern Australia are seeing really impressive rains this summer - so welcome after having been absent for so long!

Of course, weather being what it is, western parts of Australia are seeing no rain at all, but that's just Australia for you:

Farmers are delighted with replenished subsoil moisture and full dams, which in many areas have been dry for 18 months or more. The rain follows good falls on 5-6 January. A number of highest daily rainfall records were set of which the most significant were 120.4mm at Tilpa (Trevallyn) in the far NW of the state, their heaviest February fall in 35 years of observations, and 92.0 at Burrinjuck Dam, its heaviest February fall in 102 years. Cootamundra Airport's 84.0mm and Ivanhoe Airport's 62.6 were all-time records for the stations in fairly short periods of operation. I was in the Cootamundra area at the height of the rain, and seeing sheets of water stream off paddocks filling dams as I watched was an unforgettable sight.

ABC Regional Radio reported that one farm near Tullamore, 80km NW of Parkes, received 230mm over the weekend, and that other good weekend falls across the region included 150mm at Grenfell, 130mm at Condobolin and Parkes, 112mm at Hillston and 110mm at Forbes. The Bureau of Meteorology said it was the wettest three days for Forbes in at least 15 years and the wettest two days in Condobolin for February in 15 years. In Canberra, some of the best rain since 2002 fell with totals for the event of 100mm or more.

Some interviews conducted by ABC Rural give an idea of the significance of this rain event.

Chris Groves has lived on his Cowra wheat and sheep farm for 16 years and says he has not seen a rainfall event like it since he moved there. "The only other one that comes anywhere near it was back in 1995 and that was when we recorded 85 mm in one event. Every dam on the farm now has water in it and I think there's only two which haven't overflowed. Of the 25 dams on my farm, just two had water in them in December. The weekend before this weekend just passed we had 60mm of rain, so it's starting to add up. Some of the grass paddocks are now coming away well. There's also a good germination of clover, and we're set up well for lambing in a few weeks."

Graham McDonald, who grows wheat and has about 4000 sheep at Condobolin, says his property had 120mm over three days. "It was beautiful rain," he told ABC Rural. "This is probably the best rain I can remember that's spread over the entire district. I think most dams in the district are now full or overflowing." Mr McDonald flew over the district on Sunday to see the rain's impact. "Nearly all of the creeks have water running into them," he said. "There's a lot of water out there. There was some isolated flooding. There were a couple of properties where the water was up around the house. But I don't think it's been damaging flooding." Mr McDonald says he will be starting lambing in a month's time.

Daniel Cooper runs a mixed cropping and sheep operation at Caragabal. He told ABC Radio the weekend storms delivered the best rain he's seen in years. "We got between 100 mm and 120 mm over the weekend. It's been fantastic. It's filled up all our water storage dams, which means we won't have to cart water for our stock anymore. It's a job we're glad to see the back of. We had between 20 mm to 40 mm last weekend as well. So the soil is starting to get quite damp. We start lambing in a couple of months, so it'll get some feed growing and give us an opportunity to sow some forage crops."

...Warm conditions accompanying the moisture are causing weed growth, while the Australian Plague Locust Commission says the wet weather in the state's west has made conditions ideal for locust plague development, but is having difficulty getting into the area due to impassable roads. The heavy rain has also caused some fruit damage, and splitting of wine grapes ready for harvest.