Gilliat Channels at Redland Park Station, near McKinlay.

EX-TROPICAL cyclone Kirrily has moved a long way inland after reaching the east coast last week, dumping falls of more than 400mm across parts of north-west Queensland.

All eyes were on the weather as the cyclone was forming in the Coral Sea last week, promising to bring widespread falls to North, Central and Western Qld. What resulted was patchy storms, with some areas receiving huge rain and others barely receiving a drop.

Some of the biggest rainfall totals were reported between McKinlay and Kynuna in the north west of the state, with many gauges measuring 400mm since Saturday and at least one property reportedly receiving more than 500mm in the same time frame. Falls across the rest of the state have varied from 25mm to 200mm.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting more rain around the McKinlay area for the coming days, before starting to clear later this week.

The area was also hit by the 2019 floods, which resulted in the death of more than 500,000 head of cattle – many of them from cold weather exposure.

One producer told Beef Central earlier today that the wind was up and the weather was a bit cool, but much needed sun was starting to come through the clouds. Another major factor is that a lot of the area is coming off a good season, which was not the case in 2019.

An overview of the rain that has hit Qld in the aftermath of tropical cyclone Kirrily.

Cattle to come on the market

Winton-based Jack Brodie, from Brodie Agencies, said some areas between Winton and Longreach missed out and others south-west of Hughenden. However, he said the patchy storms have been consistent across the summer.

“I would say most areas have had a start by now, but not enough to call it a full season yet,” he said.

Mr Brodie said many producers in the area held onto cattle at the end of last year as they were coming off a good wet season and did not need to sell into the depressed market.

“Because they had sold a lot of cattle at high values in the previous couple of years, they didn’t desperately need the money to pay bills and they had the feed to hold onto them,” he said.

“But that will make this year busier because they will have put some of them the market.”

Bureau of Meteorology’s forecast rainfall over the next four days, including today (starting from top left)

BOM’s eight day forecast.

Patchy storms in Southern Qld

Further south, in the Roma area the storms have also been patchy with some areas north of town receiving more than 100mm and others hoping to get more this week.

Cattle numbers booked into the Roma Saleyards, the biggest selling centre in the country, are down from about 5500 head last week to 3000 this week.

Ray White Rural Roma principal Jack Clanchy said many places around the area were hanging out for the storms to fill up dams, which were starting to dry up.

“It has definitely been patchy and scattered, there was anything from 25mm to 100mm around here, which was actually needed to fill some dams,” Mr Clanchy said.

“We are hoping to get a bit more of this weather, otherwise we could be in for a long year. But the forecast and the rain over the last couple of days have been very promising.”