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Aussie farmers still face water woes despite rain
Tue, Jan 08, 2008 The Straits Times
SYDNEY - HEAVY rain and flooding in north-east Australia have been both a blessing and a curse for drought-hit farmers, who welcome the rain but say it is not enough to break the seven- year-long dry spell. Farm officials say a series of storms has delivered heavy but sporadic rain in two of Australia's largest agricultural states - Queensland and New South Wales. Some farmers and irrigators who had been facing zero water supplies have seen their water rations restored to 100 per cent. But others are still staring at bone-dry paddocks, while some of the farmers already on government drought assistance are now applying for flood aid after rivers burst their banks, causing millions of dollars worth of damage to crops, livestock and infrastructure.

'We are a long way from getting out of the drought,' Mr Lyndon Pfeffer, the grains president of farm group AgForce Queensland, said yesterday.

'The main cropping area has certainly missed out. It is still a bit sporadic. It is still just storm rain. The general rain has not given everybody a good soaking,' he said.

Mr Pfeffer said enough rain had fallen in north- east Queensland's sugar growing region and in the west of the state.

But there were still pockets of dry areas needing rain, he said.

In New South Wales, hundreds of farms in the west of the state and along the north coast have been flooded. The state government has declared the coastal region a natural disaster area, with an estimated A$20 million (S$25 million) worth of damage.

'I think it is fantastic to get the rain,' said Mr Jock Laurie, president of the NSW Farmers Federation. 'Unfortunately, there are always a few people affected when you get flooding.'

Mr Laurie said the recent rain had helped grain farmers in Queensland and New South Wales, and would be a boon to wheat farmers, who plant in the winter.

The New South Wales government said last November that drought had slashed the state's winter crop forecast by 40 per cent to 2.82 million tonnes.

The winter crop is mainly wheat, although barley and other crops are also grown.

'The rain we have now will start to put a moisture profile back in the ground for the winter (wheat) crop - something they did not have last year,' said Mr Laurie.

'If you can get a bit more rain and get some water in the storage tanks, it will really help out the rice, cotton and irrigation industries.'

Meteorologists believe the worst of the storm weather may be over as a former cyclone failed to reintensify in far north Queensland and flood waters receded in the state's south-east. But they have also forecast more rain and flooding.

'It is likely to last until autumn, if not a good deal later, perhaps well into winter or even through to spring,' said Mr David Jones, head of climate analysis at the Bureau of Meteorology.

The bureau had forecast that the La Nina weather pattern, which is generally associated with cooler and wetter conditions, would last at least until autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

'La Ninas are favourable for rainfall across quite a lot of southern and particularly eastern Australia,' Mr Jones said.

Meanwhile, Australia was continuing to battle bushfires.

The major highway from the east to the west coast city of Perth was still closed yesterday because of a blaze that remained out of control eight days after three truck drivers died in an attempt to drive through it.

With temperatures expected to reach 43 deg C today and northerly winds forecast, the fire could again cross the Great Eastern Highway, state official Peter Keppel said.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, ASSOCIATED PRESS