Bushfires: Welcome rain has Bundarra cheering

Firefighters and farmers rejoiced on Friday as rain fell over vast stretches of Australia’s east coast for the second day in a row.

Gwydir River near NSW northern tablelands. Picture: News Regional Media

Firefighters and farmers rejoiced on Friday as thunder rumbled and rain fell over vast stretches of Australi­a’s east coast for the second day in a row.

In Bundarra on the NSW northern tablelands, people celeb­rated near the banks of the Gwydir River and toddlers who had never seen rain splashed about in puddles­ that just a week earlier had been piles of dirt.

“It’s bloody brilliant,” said the local Uralla Shire Council’s general manager, David Aber. “It’s the first rain Bundarra has had since June, the mood is just buoyant.”

The tiny rural settlement was at imminent risk of running out of water, but the downpour on Friday brought 105mm of rain — the most the town has received since November 2011.

“It’s a respite,” Mr Aber said. “We are nowhere near out of the woods yet, we need at least three months of good, steady rain, but it’s put a smile on my face.”

While heavy rain missed most parts of Australia’s drought-­afflic­ted interior, Charleville in outback Queensland and Blackwater, west of Rockhampton, both received 63mm. But meteorologists warned that short, intense rain events could lead to flash flooding, while “patchy” rain would do little for farmers struggling to cope with the unrelenting drought.

“It’s certainly not drought-breaking rainfall,” Zach Porter­ from the Bureau of Meteorology said on Friday.

“We need prolonged steady rain over a widespread area and we need quite a few of those events. We need a lot more rain to ease the scale of the drought.”

Sydney had its largest rainfall in four months on Friday, with 53mm recorded in the CBD over the 24 hours to 3pm — more rain than was recorded in the entire month of December. Boonanghi in the mid-north of NSW recorded the state’s highest rainfall, 126mm.

However, the amount of rain varied wildly, with fire-ravaged Batemans Bay receiving just 2mm and Bairnsdale, in Victoria’s East Gippsland, collecting just 0.4mm.

Heavy rainfall is expected to continue throughout NSW at the weekend, with 25-50mm predicted to fall in Grafton and 15-20mm forecast for the Sydney Basin. The NSW Rural Fire Service welcomed­ the rain on large firegrounds, but warned that the bushfire crisis was far from over.

“It won’t put all these fires out but certainly it’s slowed them right down and I think it’s given a ­significant morale boost,” RFS Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers­ told the Seven Network.

“We’ve had rainfall on most fires now — at least 10mm — and particularly in the south in areas where it’s harder to get to, in the Kosciuszko ranges. They’re the ones (where) we’re quite happy there’s been some rainfall.”

On Friday evening, there were 79 bushfires burning in NSW — down from 85 on Thursday — with about 30 still out of control.

Widespread showers are expected­ to fall over central and fire-ravaged eastern Victoria, with 10- 25mm expected by Monday.