Rain and flows bring hope to the outback

The Kamilaroi Highway west of Walgett on Sunday (left photo) and Mallowa Creek 90 kilometres west of Moree on Monday Photos supplied

Not everyone had a share in the rain but what did fall across the district was enough to fill tanks and raise hopes of a big flow down the river system by next week.

In Bourke, there was little to report with only five millimetres recorded until Monday morning, but at Byrock, the town tank was overflowing. Mulga Creek Hotel licensee Gail Kelley said the tank was ‘chock-a-block’.

“We had 72 millimetres in the early hours of Saturday morning, five mils on Sunday and nothing much since, but it’s been great,” she said.

“There’s water across the paddocks and we’ll take whatever we can get.”

Bourke Shire Council General Manager Ross Earl said that while the rainfall was patchy, some areas were lucky enough to enjoy reasonable falls.

“There have been some storms between Bourke and Louth in the Gundabooka National Park, and down the Kidman Way, but it appears the rain has been pretty patchy, with some people lucky enough to be under a storm and others who haven’t been so lucky,” he said.

“We’re anticipating some good flows and there is a lot of water coming down, but we don’t know exactly how much that will be – I’m expecting a heap!

“At Collarenebri they had nine thousand megalitres per day going through on Sunday and it’s still going up so we are hoping we’ll see some of that in the next week or so,” Mr Earl said.

Read more in the printed edition of the Western Herald.