Queensland farmers and graziers are hoping rains that caused flash flooding and cut off a town southeast of Townsville will give them a reprieve from drought, with falls up to 300mm predicted over the weekend.
More than 250mm of rain in Townsville over the past three days has already seen the Ross River Dam reach 80 per cent of capacity. The dam had been sitting below 15 per cent earlier this week. Further inland, the town of Giru was cut off after the Haughton River peaked at 3.1m on Thursday night, before waters receded yesterday.
A low-pressure system moved west throughout the day yesterday, drenching the outback towns of Julia Creek and around Richmond, leading to flood warnings on the Balonne, Bohle, Burdekin and Dawson rivers.
With much of the state still drought-declared, AgForce president Grant Maudsley said rainfall over the weekend should provide some relief in the state’s west.
“There’s certainly big areas that’ve had it, but the southwest is missing out,” he said. “For some of that western country … the weather bureau is forecasting pretty strong (rainfall) this weekend. So I think people are looking at it with great anticipation.”
But he said the rainfall had come at the end of the summer growing season, when enough grass was grown to last the winter. “This will certainly do some good. For people that have got grass already, it will be a wonderful end to their summer.”
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Julian De Morton said the low was sitting around Richmond yesterday afternoon, and could see strong rains as far south as Longreach and Windorah, and north to Mount Isa, over the weekend. He said falls of about 75mm to 150mm over 24 hour intervals were likely, and some areas might get 300mm.
*** "Even the rain that falls, isn't actually going to fill our dams and our river systems"
