Best rain for years drenches parched areas of New South Wales (Murray Darling basin)

[depakid]

Large areas of farmland around Condobolin have been submerged by floodwaters.
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Parts of central west New South Wales have experienced their best rain in more than a decade, causing flooding and filling farm dams. One farm at Tullamore, near Parkes, received a drenching, with 230 millimetres of rain falling there over the weekend. Other good falls across the region included 150mm at Grenfell, 130mm at Condobolin and Parkes, 112mm at Hillston and 110mm at Forbes. And Broken Hill, in the state's far west, reached 94 millimetres for the month, the town's best falls in more than six decades.

"It was a deep trough that moved over the state and a deep trough extending towards the north of the country which threw in moist tropical air all the way through Queensland and NSW and this is what brought the heavy rain and storms,And Broken Hill, in the state's far west, reached 94 millimetres for the month, the town's best falls in more than six decades.

"It was a deep trough that moved over the state and a deep trough extending towards the north of the country which threw in moist tropical air all the way through Queensland and NSW and this is what brought the heavy rain and storms.

Forecasters say it was the wettest three days for Forbes in at least 15 years.

Farm dams are overflowing and dry creeks are springing to life. Once-parched paddocks now have a green tinge, while others lie submerged under water. Chris Groves, who grows grain and farms sheep and cattle at Cowra, says rain is the best he has seen in more than a decade. "We ended up getting about 125 mm of rain for this event, which started on Friday night," he said.

"It's been fantastic. It's about filling up the soil profile. It means we're going to have moisture in the soil. "With modern farming technology, we are now able to conserve a lot of that moisture and use it for the winter crops." Mr Groves has lived on his farm for 16 years and says he has not seen a rainfall event like it since he moved there. "Every dam on the farm now has water in it and I think there's only two which haven't overflowed." Mr Groves says of the 25 dams on his farm, just two had water in them in December. "The weekend before this weekend just passed we had 60 mm of rain, so it's starting to add up," he said.

"Some of the grass paddocks are now coming away well. There's also a good germination of clover." The good grass growth will set the Groveses 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 said. "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.

More: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/15/2820273.htm

Best rain in years for outback SA

Many outback communities in South Australia have had some of their best rain in a decade. Innamincka resident John Osborne says the rain was consistent in the past week and a weekend downpour means the Cooper Creek is now about eight metres deep. He says water is about to flow down the Strzelecki Creek for the first time since the early 1990s.

Mr Osborne says most roads and airstrips leading to Innamincka are closed and trucks have already been stuck there for about three weeks. "We had 33 ml there on Friday and another 31 on Saturday, Moomba had double that, and so there's absolutely no way that these roads are going to be open, like I say, for at least another three to five days," he said. "That's how it has been for the last three-and-a-half weeks, so fresh food is definitely non-existent up here at the moment."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/15/2819488.htm?section=justin

Outback New South Wales also fared well:

Broken Hill, in the state's far west, reached 94 millimetres for the month, the town's best falls in more than six decades.

[Bobbieo]

1. That is great news for Aussies!

[Snow Bird]

2. It's a shame that we can't return to a

stable, predictable, unchanging climate so these people could avoid these wild swings in the weather. Until we address the problems we will continue to be plagued by periods of drought and flooding.