In the 30 minutes to 7.30pm on Friday, 42.4mm was recorded at Horsham; in the 30 minutes to 8.36pm, 34.2mm was recorded at Kellalac; and 27.4mm at both Edenhope Airport in the 30 minutes to 8.18pm, and Longerenong in the 60 minutes to 8.12pm.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a warning for Mallee and parts of Northern Country, Wimmera and North Central forecast districts on Sunday for intense rainfall that could lead to flash-flooding, predicting six-hourly rainfall totals between 40mm and 60mm and 24-hourly rainfall totals between 80mm and 100mm.
Buloke Shire Council set up sandbagging stations at Donald and Culgoa, while Hindmarsh Shire Council made provisions for sandbagging at Dimboola, and closed its transfer stations.
Between Friday and 2pm on Monday, VICSES volunteers across the Grampians region responded to 74 requests for assistance, RFAs; 32 for trees down, 20 for building damage and 14 for flood.
Horsham’s unit responded to 22 RFAs, Dimboola responded to 10, and a visiting taskforce of 19 volunteers from across the state supported units across the area.
Wimmera Machinery Field Days cancelled its first day of events, the site deemed too waterlogged to safely accommodate the public.
Field days manager Vanessa Lenehan said as water was pumped from the site, arrangements were made for attendees’ convenience.
“In the interest of public safety, we made the call to not open to the public on Tuesday, just to allow us another day to get those pumps going, get the drainage happening and make a bit more of a plan of how to get everyone onsite,” she said.
“It’s been a huge effort this time around – I don’t think we’ve ever had a year that’s been this wet, even 2011 wasn’t this wet.
“We’ve just had another layer of complexity to deal with, so it’ll be really great if people can get behind us and support us.”
Mrs Lenehan said it was a difficult decision to cancel Tuesday’s events.
“We see all the work the exhibitors do trying to get here and get their sites set up,” she said.
“We know they 100 per cent rely on the public coming through the gates, so hopefully everyone will get behind the field days and come out today, Wednesday, and tomorrow and really support those exhibitors.
“Our hours today will be extended from 8.30am to 7pm, so if anyone wants to hang around a little bit longer to make up for lost time on Tuesday, they can.
“We just need everyone to come on board and give those businesses a big boost.”
The field days committee announced yesterday people could park on-site, rather than using a planned shuttle bus from Dooen’s golf club.
Autumn break
The bureau defines the Wimmera’s autumn break as at least 15mm of rainfall over three days around the start of the winter cropping season.
Lawloit farmer John Bennett told Country Today he received about 80mm of rain over the weekend.
“A tremendous rain, and I’m absolutely game to call it – the autumn break,” he said.
“We weren’t really game to sow before the rain, because it is a little bit early.
“We’ve got winter wheat in our programs, and we really needed to get 50mm to be confident we’d get that through.
“I think now we can get that in the ground, and it will still be successful.”
Mr Bennett said although he would not sow canola until the first week of April, he would sow vetch further east.
“We’ll certainly sow vetch north of Horsham, at Murra Warra, we’ve had really good rain there,” he said.
“And we’ll also sow some pasture for feed back around Nhill.”
Mr Bennett said some of his best years for livestock have started with ‘a couple of inches’ of rain at the start of March.
“The future is a clean slate, obviously, but I think we’ve got a very good chance of the pasture persisting now and not dying,” he said.
“Sheep aren’t the main production area in our business, but we take them seriously. There are a few sheep running around here, and I’m so glad for all those people that actually fed livestock for 18 months through the last two years – that was pretty tough going.
“Hopefully some of these livestock areas have actually received a good early break.”
Patchewollock farmer Simon Grigg said he’d had about 140mm of rain during the week.
“There’s a lot of places that have had more, but I think from Mildura, right down to Birchip, over to Swan Hill, I think it’s been pretty similar,” he said.
“There’s no doubt about it being the autumn break – it’s an absolute magnificent break. We haven’t had this for a long, long time.
“And even though it’s still early –it’s another four to six weeks before we start cropping – it gives us time to prepare the ground for cropping and it’s absolutely ideal.”
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