Rain brings relief in parched Victoria and puts smiles on farmers' faces

Australia Broadcast Center

5 days ago

Drought-affected farmers in Victoria are rejoicing after soaking rain brought relief to their parched paddocks over the weekend.
Most of the state received between 20 and 60 millimetres of rain, with some areas getting more than others.
At Werrimull, west of Mildura, Nick Hards tipped 20 millimetres out of his gauge.
"It's going to give a lot of [farmers] a lot of hope for some sort of outcome for the year.
"This brings us to about 50mm for the year. It's the toughest season we've had for quite a while, rainfall-wise."
Cattle farmer Janice Newnham scored a "fantastic" 50mm at Walwa, in the state's north-east.
"The rain came down quite densely, so it was very grey but the catchment dams are all filled," she said.
"The calves who have dropped over the last couple of weeks are looking a bit cold and scared.
"They haven't seen much rain before."
Over at Ararat in Victoria's west, about 30mm of rain fell on Rob Armstrong's two farms.
His dry dams started filling up and the slippery conditions took a bit of getting used to again.
"I couldn't even remember how to put [my vehicle] in four-wheel drive. It's that long since I've used it," Mr Armstrong joked.
Rainfall deficiencies have continued across Australia's southern agricultural areas for months.
Mr Armstrong said it was a relief to get a good drop of rain.
"Not having to worry about water is a wonderful thing on a farm," he said.
"A lot of farmers will sleep a lot better because of this.
"It's been a knife edge for a long time."
For Ben Charleson, the rain has "taken the pressure off for the time being".
The sheep and cropping farmer at Kingston, north of Ballarat, said he was "lucky" to get 63mm.
"We've got water in a few dams, and there's water running around the place now, which is terrific," he said.
Mr Charleson said his crops would still need a "good" spring to do well this year and his fodder needed warmth to grow.
"It's definitely set us up, but we're behind the eight ball to where we usually would be.
But Nick Hards said he needed more rain for his crops to keep growing near Mildura.
"Ideally we need follow-up rain in a week or two," Mr Hards said.
Winter rainfall has boosted water storages in the south-west of the state, after hitting low levels in early June.
Barwon Water said the Apollo Bay, Marengo and Skenes Creek storages were now at 68 per cent, allowing stage 2 water restrictions to be lifted in those towns on Friday, August 1.
Stage 2 water restrictions remain in place in Daylesford and Hepburn in central Victoria and Euroa and Violet Town in the state's north-east.