Flooded farmers face financial disaster

It's easy to underestimate the devastation caused by swollen rivers as they spilled out over much of eastern Australia this week.

FROM a distance, it's easy to underestimate the devastation swollen rivers caused as they spilled out over much of eastern Australia this week.

Unlike a bushfire, there is no blackened earth, no rubble, no plumes of smoke to signpost the tragedy. Once the drenching stormclouds have passed, the floodwaters settle on the once-parched landscape like a blanket.

To an untrained eye, watching wheat-farmer Peter Yates stand in a sodden field in the Lockhart Shire outside Wagga Wagga, a withered ear of wheat in his hand, is to remain largely oblivious to the financial crisis he is facing. But this has been a week of slow-moving heartbreak in four mainland states.

Queensland was hit first, but the southern agricultural belts, particularly the Riverina and the central-west of NSW, were hit hardest. Since mid-week, large swaths of South Australia and Victoria have been seemingly afloat, while Queanbeyan, next to Canberra, suffered its biggest flood in about 30 years.

Queensland, Victoria, NSW and South Australia all have flood warnings in place, while 45 local government areas in NSW and Queensland have been declared natural disaster zones.

In NSW the number has doubled in a week -- equating to almost a third of the state. With the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting more thunderstorms as the band of rain that produced heavy falls across Victoria and NSW moves north into Queensland, there may be more pain to come.

It is too early to tally the final damage bill, but it seems certain to be billions of dollars.

The South Australian Farmers Federation estimates more than $500 million has already been wiped off the value of ripe cereal crops in the state following Tuesday night's deluge, in which up to 130mm fell in the mid-north and Riverland. Not until early next week will farmers be able to return to their harvesters.

Water subsided in most areas yesterday, but the Wakefield River burst its levies, flooding parts of Port Wakefield, north of Adelaide.

Another $500m has been lost from winter crops in NSW -- particularly wheat, canola and pulses, but NSW Industry and Investment Department spokesman Brett Fifield said the total losses were likely to be far higher.

"This doesn't even scratch the surface," Mr Fifield said.

He has heard reports of 700 sheep drowning on a single farm near Wagga Wagga.

"We'll be in a much better position to assess next week, or when the water levels drop and farmers can get out into their paddocks," he said.

One who doesn't need to wait until next week to gauge the damage is Mr Yates, who runs a 2000ha mixed crop and livestock farm in Lockhart Shire, one of Australia's most productive wheat-growing regions

Mr Yates said this week 90 per cent of the family's crops had been spoiled, ending hopes of a "million-dollar harvest" and the first sustainable profit since 1999.

Before the rain dump hit, plump wheat heads stood waist-high, bronzing, but they now barely reach the knee, pelted into the ground by the rainfall since October, which has been four times the average.

"We had the chance to recoup a big part of the money we lost during the drought with this harvest, if it had gone the right way," Mr Yates said.

His is but one story of thousands in the disaster areas. Residents as far north as central Queensland and the coastal town of Rockhampton were yesterday preparing for similar misery.

More than 120 soldiers were put on disaster relief standby as downpours swelled nine rivers in central and outback Queensland.

Theodore, a town of 500 people south of Rockhampton, was bracing for the worst floods in 27 years as the Dawson River rose.

In Victoria, new Premier Ted Baillieu yesterday inspected damage around Wangaratta, in the state's northeast. "I think we can be grateful the flood effects have not been as bad as perhaps was expected," he said.

But he warned that the emergency was not over, with flood alerts current for the Ovens River.