Stanthorpe farmers delighted as dams fill for the first time in three years

‘Rain is one of those things that uplifts our soul’: Stanthorpe residents overjoyed as rain fills Storm King Dam, feeds farms.

Karen Johns' dam will be overflowing soon, for the first time in 3 years.

Granite Belt residents are jumping for joy at Tuesday’s massive deluge which filled up some farmer’s dams for the first time in three years.

Still need to activate your free Courier Mail subscription? Click here to find out how.

Parts of the Granite Belt have received over 100mm since Tuesday morning with rain still pouring down with reports Connolly Dam is 100 per cent full and Storm King Dam at 60% per cent.

Karen Johns, who lives on the corner of Sugarloaf and Eukey Rds, was watching in delight as 77.5mm rolled in this morning, with more pouring down during the day.

For the hobby farmer, it was the first time her dams had been filled in three years.

“I can’t remember the last time I heard rain all night,” she said.

“You get worried when the dam hasn’t filled in three years, it doesn’t look good for anyone.

“Our weirs filled last year but we were running out of water again. The season before that, we were totally dry.”

For the resident, it not only meant the farm could stop worrying about feed costs, but Ms Johns could relax.

“You couldn’t do much else but try and keep things alive, now I can paint, read and do all these things,” she said.

“We’ve had the grass grow, now we have full dams and hopefully that will do everyone for the next year.

“We may still have drought but we can live for today.”

Out near Storm King Dam, James Massey said he received 55mm as of this morning in what he called “bizarre” rainfall.

“I know for a fact people have had a lot more rain than that but Storm King Dam, as of yesterday had 82.5mm for the month and now with 55mm added on that’s good that’s nearly 150mm,” he said.

Still Mr Massey was overjoyed by the rain reaching the region.

“This is one of the best flows heading into the dam for a couple of years, there was a good flow back in February but this is better,” he said.

“Some of these farmers haven’t seen water running into their dams in who knows how long but at least now the ground is wet and the rain is running.”

Mr Massey’s neighbour said excited residents flocked to the dam to check it out for themselves.

“At 6am, my next door neighbour rang me and said to me, ‘we may need crowd control on the bridge over dam, there’s that many cars down here’,” he said.

“It is an uplifting thing. Rain is one of those things that uplifts our soul.”

RELEVANT NEWS:

WILD WEATHER: First reports of flooding reach Warwick

GALLERY: Roads closed, Warwick residents on flood watch

Originally published as Stanthorpe farmers delighted as dams fill for the first time in three years