After many months of dry creek beds, a number of river systems in eastern Queensland are overflowing after a surface trough made its way across the state last week.
Beginning at Urandangi, which recorded 162mm in 24 hours, and Dajarra, where flooding led to the evacuation of several people from their homes, oppressive conditions gave way to random downpours across the central west on Wednesday.
Most notable was a storm of 159mm at Daintree to Winton’s north east, which was John and Katrina Paine’s second-highest single fall in 20 years.
While fast-flowing water gouged a hole in a dam bank at the house, there are still dams on the property that have had no water flow into them at all.
The runoff from the storm put a fresh into the Jessamine Creek channels and Western River which cut Winton Shire Council road crews – grader operators and fuel truck drivers – operating in the south of the shire from a weekend in town until they were ferried across in a loader.
The Who Got the Rain Facebook page was overflowing with happy reports from other parts of the central west as properties south of Longreach, around Isisford and Yaraka also reported some of their highest falls for months.
As the trough moved east it stalled around the central coast, dumping upwards of 500mm on parts of the coast around Proserpine and Mackay.
Moranbah recorded its highest daily February rainfall on February 6, 169mm, beating the previous record of 150.8mm on February 25, 1997.
Large parts of the Maranoa were also under the rain belt, with 64mm measured at Taroom since last Thursday. John Rodger, Hatchem Down, has measured 200mm in the last fortnight.
Creeks around the town have been cutting access, while there are minor flood warnings for the Maranoa River and Bungil Creek.
Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Jess Carey said that historically, the breakdown of strong El Niño events brings above average rainfall to some – but not all – parts of Australia in the first half of the year.
“The last three El Ninos – ‘72 to ‘73, ‘82 to ‘83 and ‘97 to ‘98 – all broke down from March to June,” he said.
“We’ve seen the wet season extended, so there are at least three or four bursts of the monsoon still possible yet.”
In the north west, agent Sam Daniels said the region was a fair way away from a good season yet.
“Coming out of such a dry time, you need a lot of rain to come back from that,” he said. “A lot of the country that got rain around Christmas has hayed off in the hot weather.”
Cloncurry's Robert Curley said the rain received to date would only see them through the rest of summer and a good 250 to 300mm was still needed to really set producers up for the year ahead.
Troy Williams at Geaney's Real Estate and Livestock, Charters Towers said he’d had 180mm since Thursday last week but falls had been patchy throughout the area.
"This latest rain has kept the moisture going from earlier this year; the grass at some places is getting a bit of extra life and bigger falls at some places have filled dams."
Charters Towers has received a total of 61mm from the influence, Ingham 33m, Bowen 62mm, Mackay 156mm, and Proserpine 161mm.
Other areas either got nothing or light showers totalling under 20mm.