Power outages and heavy rain impact harvest

More than 6000 homes in southern NSW were without power on Wednesday morning. Harvest has also stopped due to wet weather.

More than 6000 homes in southern NSW were left without power on Wednesday morning after storms lashed the region overnight.

Power was lost to regions south of Wagga Wagga including The Rock, Burrumbuttock, Collingullie, Holbrook and Jingellic.

By 11am power was restored to many townships however Essential Energy said there were still outages at Bidgeemia, Narrandera and the area north of Jindera and Jindabyne.

Additional rain fell overnight, which could hold up harvest until at least the end of the week.

Osbornes Flat had 57mm, Rutherglen, 38mm and Woodend 34mm.

On the weekend Birchip received a 45mm downpour with farmer John Ferrier saying he wasn’t going to knock back rain despite it causing a stop to harvest for a few days.

Chris Drum of Banyena in the Wimmera said 10mm had fallen at his place since the weekend but he was expecting more on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Just 3mm fell at Justin Everitt’s property at Brocklesby in southern NSW and further north at Marrar Dan Fox said no rain had arrived on Tuesday morning.

However, the Bureau of Meteorology was expecting a widespread front to deliver rain to many locations in the eastern states and South Australia.

Farmers have been emptying out the rain gauge.

The BOM is predicting the possibility of thunderstorms in the Riverina and northern Victoria for the remainder of the week, but in the Wimmera they are forecast to clear by Friday.

Country Fire Authority group officer, and farmer at Merino in the Western District, Wayne Munro, said landholders had handled the hot conditions and fire danger well.

“They are certainly keeping machines pretty well maintained and doing whatever they can to reduce risks,” he said.

At Booligal in the NSW Riverina, Sandra Ireson said there had been several fires in the area due to lightning strikes.

She said there was a good body of feed in the paddocks which made the risk of fires more concerning for the region.

Walpeup farmer Mick Pole said 60mm to 90mm fell in the area from Saturday afternoon until Monday.

“It was not heavy rain, just continuous,” he said. Mr Pole will now wait for crops to dry out before continuing on with harvest.