Bairnsdale, Serpentine, Morwell: Farmers ‘ecstatic’ as much-needed rain hits Victoria
Some farmers in Gippsland’s Wellington shire have been flooded in after more than 100mm of rain fell across a “hectic” two days.
Gippsland and North East Victoria have recorded a second day of massive rainfall with farmers in Gippsland’s Wellington shire hit by flash flooding.
An emergency evacuation warning remains in place for the dairy farming townships of Tinamba, Tinamba West and Newry following two days of substantial rainfall and the release of water from Lake Glenmaggie at 56,000ML per day.
Nicole and Brendan Saunders, winners of The Weekly Times Coles 2022 Farmer of the Year, estimated about three-quarters of their 700-cow dairy farm was underwater as the nearby Macalister River floods.
Mrs Saunders said they were preparing to be flooded into their Tinamba property for a few days after deciding to stay to look after their animals.
“We have had about 130mm. We chose to stay to look after the animals. We got food and prepared yesterday and moved the animals to the higher areas,” Mrs Saunders said.
“The floodwaters came through probably about 6am this morning. We can get through with a tractor, but not with a vehicle.
“It has definitely been a little bit hectic and not ideal, but more rain is better than no rain.
“We think about three-quarters (of the property) is underwater. We did some drain digging around the strawberries yesterday because they really don’t like getting wet.
“It is our first flood here, having purchased the property just over a year ago, but we think the water is going to hang around for a few days.”
The Saunders family runs a 1600-cow operation, with 700 dairy cows and 200 calves alongside a pick-your-own strawberry farm.
The floodwaters haven’t stopped the Saunders from milking their herd, with power still running and the milk tanker able to wade through to the property.
Mrs Saunders said despite the flooding, the rain was welcome following a dry winter and start to spring.
“We were so excited for rain, but probably not 150mm,” Mrs Saunders said.
“The flood means we will get some spill from the dams and it’ll reset our water quotas.
“We had used a significant part of our water allocation already. It’ll also fill up the water tables going into summer.
“It is a huge relief because we can keep cattle on those blocks non-irrigated feeding blocks.”
Morwell recorded a further 31mm of rain yesterday for a total of 126mm across the week so far, while in Sale 125.6mm has fallen, including 26.6mm on Wednesday.
Lakes Entrance was one of the Victorian towns that received the most rain on Wednesday recording 55m for a total of 97mm.
Elders Bairnsdale livestock manager Morgan Davies said he hoped the wet weather lifted producers’ spirits.
“It doesn’t rain feed, but it rains confidence,” he said.
“To be honest Bairnsdale was stuffed, this is our first major rain event since the end of May.
“Hopefully it makes it a bit easier; we can formulate some growth before summer.”
As of midday on Thursday, there were 11 Watch and Act Riverine Flood warnings, up from seven yesterday, including the Latrobe River downstream of Traralgon.
There are also 16 Advice warnings including at the Goulburn River from Eildon to Seymour and the Avon River.
12pm Wednesday, October 5
From central Victoria to Gippsland, farmers are breathing a sigh of relief as a band of “beautiful” rain sweeps across parts of the state.
Gippsland and the High Country have received the most rainfall during the past day or so with Sale recording 99mm, the Latrobe Valley 95mm and Yarram 60mm as of 9am October 4.
In East Gippsland, Bairnsdale had received 48mm while 45mm was recorded at Omeo.
East Gippsland mixed cropping and beef farmer Trevor Caithness said he has received about 60mm at his property, located south of Bairnsdale, with the majority of the rain falling overnight.
“It has just been a constant, soft rain. You couldn’t have asked for a better rain,” he said.
“The ground has soaked it all up, there is not really a puddle.
“I suspect we might end up with about 100mm with some rain still to come today and I don’t expect there will be any real issues with that.
“It had been a super dry winter, with one of our lowest rainfalls on record, so it is pretty pleasing.”
Mr Caithness said the much needed rain had come about a month late of delivering the ultimate benefits.
“In reality the rain is probably three to four weeks too late. The canola has finished flowering, prematurely, and cereal has lost lots of yield potential,” he said.
“Our system relies a lot on stored fodder and we had been using it up the last three months. So this will allow us to grow some summer crops and restore a bit of that fodder and allow us our full stocking rates.”
The largest falls this week have been recorded at Mt Hotham and Falls Creek with a massive 196.4mm and 148.6mm respectively.
In North East Victoria, which has mostly avoided the driest conditions so far this year, there were strong falls at Wangaratta (52mm) and Rutherglen (44mm).
Following the heavy rain, especially in North East Victoria and the Goulburn Valley, there are seven Watch and Act Riverine Flood warnings, including the Yarra River from Millgrove to Coldstream and the Goulburn River upstream of Lake Eildon. There are also more than 30 Advice warnings.
Meanwhile in central Victoria, Bendigo recorded 45mm while about 35mm fell at Kerang.
Serpentine mixed cropping and sheep farmer Prue Milgate said Tuesday’s rain was “beautiful”.
“We recorded 42mm and that is pretty much across the farm. We have had our driest September on record with very minimal rain so the crops have just been hanging on with the subsoil moisture from the floods last year,” she said.
“It should be a positive grain season now. The rain means the grain fills won’t be limited and so we should have an average season cemented.
“We have about 2500 breeding ewes and we are dropping numbers, but we recently sowed three paddocks to lucerne and now we are ecstatic.
“They were going to be irrigated, but with this rain they won’t need to be and will come up naturally.”
Meanwhile north of the border 40mm has fallen at Jerilderie, which is due to have its annual sheep sale this Friday.
Agents have said the sale will still go ahead as they had already trucked sheep to the centre on the back of the rain forecast.
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