Dam delight as heavens open in Stanthorpe

After years of punishing drought that turned Stanthorpe into a dustbowl, overflowing Storm King Dam provided a silver lining to the flood crisis.

Storm King Dam is full to overflowing, and it’s a ‘sight for sore eyes’, says Southern Downs mayor Vic Pennisi.

After years of punishing drought that turned the southern Queensland fruit bowl of Stanthorpe into a dustbowl, overflowing Storm King Dam provided a silver lining to the flood crisis gripping communities south to Sydney.

Local mayor Vic Pennisi fell to his knees — in delight, not despair — as water poured down the spillway for the first time since 2017.

The town three hours’ west of Brisbane was a holdout corner of drought that had initially missed the deluge delivered by the La Nina weather pattern. While inundated coastal centres and suburbs in Sydney’s west cursed, Stanthorpe fretted it would stay dependent on trucked water.

So it was a relief when the heavens opened and dumped 140mm on the catchment in a day. By Wednesday, Storm King Dam was full to overflowing — a “sight for sore eyes”, Mr Pennisi said.

“It doesn’t rain dollars but in this case it has rained hope,” he told The Australian. “People have a much better step, it will lift them and their hope for the future.”

For now, tight water restrictions that held locals to 120L/day of water will stay, but the Southern Downs Regional Council is expected to lift the cap next week.

More than 140 tanker loads a week have been brought in to keep the taps on, at a cost of $10m over the past year.

Fortunately for the ratepayers of Stanthorpe, the Queensland government picked up the tab.

Local bakery operator Fiona Fox, 32, said her three kids would be thrilled to play under the hose again, but she and husband Chris had made lasting changes to the way the family lived, and she hoped locals would continue to limit water consumption.

“What if it doesn’t rain again for four years? We would be right back in the same situation,” Ms Fox said.

Lauding the rain as “better than winning Gold Lotto”, Mr Pennisi said nearby Connolly Dam was also at 100 per cent while Leslie Dam outside ­Warwick had a full urban water allocation.

Council officers are in the ­process of preparing advice on ­revised usage rules for the town of 5000.