Second driest year down on the farm in the past 90 years

RECORD drought was after the wettest year on record but that wasn't the case this time.

Family dog Max beside the rubbish from a fresh in Lagoon Creek at Greymare last month. Picture: Gerard Walsh

IT IS time for the farming sector to get a break from these long dry seasons.

I did say to one farmer after the last lot of good rain that we would be right for a while but he brought me back to reality by telling me we still needed more rain.

It only took about three weeks for him to be proved right. We are getting desperate for rain again to ensure a good coverage of winter grass and for those with grain, fruit or vegies to have some reasonable crops.

Hopefully someone in the farming sector can eventually make money out of what is a cash crop, turned tourism bonanza, sunflowers.

Seems like it is a traffic hazard at present.

Down on the farm at Greymare, we finished with 400mm of rain for the 2018 year, the second driest in the past 90 years.

There aren't too many years with under 500mm rain.

The worst was a 261mm rainfall year in 1957 but that followed a year where there was record rainfall, 1000mm plus in 1956.

I still remember my parents telling me how residents got into houses with high blocks at Inglewood after a flood in the Macintyre Brook in 1956 which was 3m higher than what was considered by engineers to be the extreme.

There was 275mm in 16 hours at Inglewood. We might be short of rain but we don't want a recording like that in the future.

The 1956 flood was well before Coolmunda Dam was constructed in 1968, a dam which can now help with flood mitigation, especially if the dam is at a low level.

Remembering Paul

THERE are many people from Warwick and Stanthorpe who have gone into politics and business after moving from the Southern Downs.

One of those was Paul Neville, who passed away on New Year's Day at age 78.

He was Federal National Party Member for Hinkler from 1993 to 2013, after first winning the seat from ALP sitting member Brian Courtice. On three occasions, he won by less than 450 votes.

Holding a marginal seat for so long is a great credit to a politician who grew up in Warwick and got his first job in the town before moving away.

I recall talking to him in Warwick for stories twice down the years and the time he phoned to get a copy of the book published on the 150th anniversary of Warwick.

Like so many, the address might be different but you couldn't take the Warwick out of Paul Neville. He was liked on all sides of politics and was a true gentleman.