Floods sprawling over AA Co’s South Galway station. Photo: AA Co Facebook

MOST of Queensland and parts of New South Wales, the Northern Territory and South Australia have now received rain in one of the most widespread weather systems in recent memory.

The slow-moving front has been hovering over the channel country, with rain now falling in the big river catchments that feed into Lake Eyre – being the Georgina, Diamantina and Bulloo Rivers, along with the Cooper Creek.

From all reports, most of the rain has been beneficial to this point – with the exception of at least one area north-west of Quilpie where homesteads have been flooded and many are expecting stock losses.

On the ‘who got the rain?’ Facebook page this morning, Wendy Sheehan from Trinidad station north-west of town said the property had received 548mm over the past six days. Similar totals of 400mm and above have been recorded in the area by the Bureau of Meteorology.

More than 500mm has fallen in parts of south-west Queensland, well and truly exceeding average annual rainfall in one event. Map: BOM

BOM is forecasting more rain in the coming days as the system continues to slowly move east and dump big falls over Tambo, Charleville and Cunnamulla.

The rain is not over yet, with more rain forecast in the coming days.

Quilpie-based Bartlett & Co agent Sam Bartlett said the rain had been falling non-stop since the weekend, which had caught a lot of people in the area off guard.

“No one can get out and assess damage, because they can’t get a helicopter off the ground. It literally has not stopped raining since Sunday afternoon,” he told Beef Central this morning.

Bartlett & Co Livestock and Property principal Sam Bartlett.

“But stock losses will be an issue out here – sheep, cattle and goats. There is a cool breeze in behind it too, not freezing but it is cool enough.

“One producer told me they are trying to organise some hay drops and things like that to get out to the stock.”

Mr Bartlett said he was expecting a quiet two months, with a lot of infrastructure needing repair and paddocks not being accessible.

“The channels love a flood but it comes at a cost,” he said.

“I’d say Quilpie is going to have a big flood for the next two weeks and Thargomindah could have floods for the next month.”

Well timed rain for many

Many have made remarks about the timing of the rain, as cattle were starting to move out of the channel country, due to dry conditions. The area relies heavily on floods and will most likely see lot of benefit.

Storms have come through Central West Qld in the past two months, with the latest system being a good follow up.

In Northern NSW, one Beef Central reader said the season had gone from destocking a month-ago to planting oats on the back of Cyclone Alfred and possibly getting some more rain out of the latest system.

Pat Gibson from Gibson Livestock, which has two properties on the Qld/NT border and one near Longreach, said all had received rain in the past week. He said Manners Creek west of Boulia had 125mm, Sandringham west of Bedourie had about 110mm and about 360mm at Marmboo near Longreach.

The Manners Creek and Sandringham rain will flow into the Georgina and the 360mm at Marmboo flows into the Thompson River and ultimately the Cooper Creek.

Mr Gibson said the rain had come at a perfect time, as many were starting to sell stock after a long and dry summer.

“We shifted a lot of cattle out of Bedourie in January because we didn’t think it was going to rain, then it came and rained behind us,” Mr Gibson said.

“The feed was starting to switch off, other people were also in the motions of getting the wheels rolling and it has just come in the nick of time. It is the best time of the year to be getting rain.”