• PHOTO: Saturated paddocks mean a raft of water-related dilemmas for the district’s farmers. PHOTO: KATRINA WALKER
THE recent rains have been creating different challenges for landholders in various parts of the Coonamble district.
According to Weatherzone, Coonamble township has received 1019 millimetres (mm) of rain in the past 12 months, almost double the median annual rainfall of 530 mm.
Despite the regular rain being a welcome event, it has also created its fair share of challenges for anyone who needs to travel through or work in the rural environment.
As well as local falls, landholders are dealing with large volumes of surface water as the often-dry and almost invisible creeks that crisscross the district fill and flow on their way to the Barwon River.
To the south west of Quambone, Katrina Walker is battling the flooded conditions on their property “Messines”.
“Messines” is situated next to “Oxley Station”, nestled in between the Macquarie River and the Marthaguy Creek.
“We had about 60mm of rain here in the past fortnight. On top of this rain event, we are seeing flood water spill across our country from both the Macquarie River and the Marthaguy Creek.”
“We have 18 paddocks on our place and currently 16 are either flooded or have flood water laying in there.”
“We have been using horses, buggies, bikes and the tractor just to get around. My mum works at the Quambone school three days a week, she canoes across the cree
k and we pick her up and take her into work,” said Mrs Walker.
“We have had to send some of our agistment cattle home, as we just had nowhere dry to put them.”
“It is probably only going to get wetter around here as they release water from Burrendong Dam and that water moves along the Macquarie River”.
“At the end of the day, we aren’t the only ones. It is wet all across this district and we knew that it was coming so we were able to be prepared.”
Out in the east of the shire down the Vatua Lane, there has been up to 70mm over the last few weeks.
There has been extensive run off from further east towards Baradine.
The water course has changed over the last wet period and the water now runs along the Vatua Lane, some of which ends up at the Warrena Creek. To the north is the Nebea Creek which spreads out and crosses the Pilliga road and ends up in the Tourable Creek on the Billeroy road.
On the northern side of town, farmer Adam Macrae had 40mm of rain in the first weather event and then another 20mm in the second event at his property ‘Tyrone’ on the Wingadee Road but like all landholders, the additional overland flows add to the complexity of the situation.
“First we had water from the Castlereagh go across all our flood country, which came from the upstream catchment area. Then we had a another lot of water come across from the Warrena Creek,” he said.
“We were trying to sow some pasture which has obviously been put on hold and will now have to wait until the Autumn to continue. We have had limited access to the most of the farm and have just been doing jobs close to home that we can get at”.
“Although this is a little inconvenient at the moment, it is definitely a positive thing. This rain will set us up for the spring and the summer and will only strengthen the cattle market” said Mr Macrae.
A little further up the Wingadee Road, where the Teridgerie Creek delivers water from near Bugaldie south of Baradine to western properties and the Mowlma Creek combines with Castlereagh to form a vast floodplain, Trevor and Lisa Wheeler have had to resort to helicopters to return to their home after the latest rain.
“Where we farm there is always the risk of flooding but at the same time you build up a storage of moisture in the soil provile and that is invaluable,” Mrs Wheeler said.
Farmers in that area have significant areas they had planned to crop and decided early on that it was too wet to plant winter crops so are holding out for a summer crop planting.
“We are hoping to be able to plant sorghum but it’s a wait and see game as far as the weather and forecast continued above average rainfall,” said Mrs Wheeler.
At “Bowra”” on the Carinda road, Ben Markey’s place is now cut in half by the Nedgera Creek.
“We have had 70mm in the past fortnight but everything is so saturated looks like 120mm of rain” said Mr Markey.
“The water that moves along the Nedgera Creek pools on the red country out towards Combara before moving through the Tooloon area then coming this way.”
“I am trying to work out how to get shearing done. It’s a bit of a battle because I have got half of them on this side of the creek and the other half on the other side of the creek. And then we have to get shearing staff out to the farm,” he said.
“Originally, I had plans to start building up a few roads, getting them ready for harvest. But everything is just put on hold.”
By HANNAH WILLIAMS & LEE O’CONNOR