After months of drought and near drought Rankins Springs’ waters finally broke, however not all received the many blessings water can bring.
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For Julie and David Groat, they lost fences and top soil, costing them hours of man-power and time to replace.
Their farm received a damaging downpour of about 40 millimetres on Wednesday afternoon.
“It is certainly a change, we have been counting in points for months, and now we had 40 mils all at once,” Mrs Groat said.
“It would have been nice spread over a couple of days, but not in one sitting.
“Friends sent us photos of what we thought was a river – it turned out it was our gate.”
Too late in the season for the water to do any good for their crops, Mrs Groat said, and stripping away the top soil, the rain was certainly not a welcome relief.
Out of town by 18 kilometres as the crow flies, Jock Munro received only four millimetres of rain, which he says was “extremely lucky.”
“Storms like that do a huge amount of damage. If we had had got that storm it would have wreaked havoc,” Mr Munro said.
As for his crops, a few very light showers last week and this sprinkling of water he says should be enough to get a better-than-expected crop after the dire outlook only a month ago.
“The small amounts have been quite beneficial, and if we get a few more it will be even better.
“It’s quite an interesting year. Crops are light, but I think they will fill out enough to be stripped.
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“Every chance those crops could have failed all together. The agronomists seem to think they are drawing on moisture from the extremely wet year in 2016.”
Rankins Spring is estimated to have received between 40 and 60 millimetres, causing roads to flood.
“I drove into Rankins Springs Water between 5.30pm and 5.45pm and the water was at least a foot deep, would have been close to the steps on the 4WD,” Mr Munro said.
“I saw all the fences down alongside the road, and it was getting to the point where a really small car wouldn’t taken a great deal of care.”
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