WA farmers welcome 'very, very wet 24 hours' after dry winter

A low-pressure system that developed in northern Western Australia has brought much-needed rain to the state's southern regions, providing relief after a dry winter.

In the Goldfields, Kalgoorlie-Boulder recorded four times its average September rainfall, with some areas in the south receiving almost 100 millimeters of rain. The rain has been a welcome respite for farmers, who have been struggling with the dry conditions.

Farmers breathe a sigh of relief

Bremer Bay farmer Peter Buckenara said the rain was a blessing, but also caused some damage to his crops. "We've had 78 mils at home here, and we've had 94 mils closer to town, so it's definitely been a very, very wet 24 hours," he said.

The beef and grain farmer said the heavy rainfall had damaged some of his crops, while others benefited from the rain. "Unfortunately, the oats are lodged or fallen over, so it means they'll either have to be swathed, or we'll try and pick it up with a harvester off the ground," he said. "Certainly a bit of damage there, but canola and wheat still looks fine."

Rain brings hope for harvest

Mr. Buckenara said he was hoping for a break in the rain to give his crops and fields time to dry out. "We're due to start hay early this week, and we'll certainly delay that just because the paddocks are too wet to get on," he said. "We're probably a week away from swathing, so that might still happen on time."

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Grace Abbott said the system that crossed the coast on Sunday night had largely dissipated, with conditions expected to dry later in the week. "It looks to be light to moderate rainfall about the south coast for both Monday and Tuesday," she said. "On Wednesday, we have a cold front brush by; it looks to be 1 to 5 millimetres, but some isolated 10 millimetres rainfall, particularly about the coast."

Dry conditions persist in other areas

While the south coast received significant rain, farmers in other areas said they missed out on the deluge. Gnowangerup farmer Timm House said he received 2mm on one property and 19mm on the other. "We could see a lot of rain clouds went north and east of us [on] Saturday, and then Sunday we had a few showers go to the west of us," he said. "We're hoping for a bit more than 2 millimetres [on the second property]. It would have been nice to get 10 to 15, that would have been awesome rain."

Mr. House said he was hopeful that the rain would help his crops, but was still concerned about the dry conditions. "We're still hoping the crops are going to be OK, but the rain that we've got over the weekend, wherever that fell will pretty much, barring no other issues, it will get us get us an average yield," he said. "We would definitely take more rain."