Parts of drought-ravaged eastern Australia receive more rain in two days than in previous months combined

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The drought has not broken, but farmers on parched properties across New South Wales and Queensland are seeing something they’ve not for many months: rain.

In Dubbo on the NSW Western Plains, farmer Glen Bloink could not contain his excitement at the first downpour in months.

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He stripped off – save for the obligatory Akubra – to gambol across his sodden paddocks as the rain continued to fall around him.

His partner, Min Coleman, shared his streak on Facebook with the caption: “Someone’s a bit excited.”

Coleman told the ABC they were “doing it pretty tough” on their 1000-acre property, with no crops this year to use for their cattle and sheep. But the rain had buoyed spirits and revitalised the land.

“We can already see the little shoots of weed … coming through, which is just really encouraging.”

Significant falls were recorded across parts of NSW and Queensland over the weekend – in some parts more rain fell in two days than had in months previous – but not everywhere that needed rain received it.

Across south-east Queensland, drought-hit areas east of Charleville had as much as 50mm of rain by midday Sunday.

“Most of the rain is mainly east of about Roma, over the Darling Downs and further east,” the Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Lachlan Stoney said on Sunday.

“Areas west of Roma are quite clear at the moment and they won’t see any further rain. But they have seen that same pattern of generally 5-20mm.

“We have seen some isolated falls, in the order of 50mm.”

Northern NSW recorded significant falls over Friday and Saturday, with Coffs Harbour recording 56mm. There were showers on the central and northern NSW tablelands, and in the north-west, Bourke received 17mm.

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Hail fell in several places, including Toronto on Lake Macquarie, south of Newcastle.

Strong wind warnings were issued for Sunday for the Byron and Batemans Bay coastal regions, and gale-force winds were expected across Sydney, the Illawarra and the Hunter on Monday.

The new prime minister, Scott Morrison, who has declared drought relief as a key priority of his government, was set to visit Queensland on Monday with the government’s newly appointed drought tzar, Major General Stephen Day.

“Everybody wants to try and help and do the right thing,” Morrison said. “But the frustration often in government is getting it coordinated and getting it where it needs to get.

“That’s what we’re going to do, there’ll be no shortage of effort and no shortage of resource.”

Currently, 100% of NSW is impacted by the drought. Twenty-one per cent of the state is suffering intense drought; 57.4% of Queensland is drought-declared. Conditions are most severe in the south-west.

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The government has committed $1.8bn to a “drought resilience” package, mostly in the form of low-interest loans to farmers, local councils and businesses. Those loans will ultimately be required to be repaid and so do not impact the budget long-term.

While Morrison has committed to making drought relief a key priority, he came to the prime ministership in a bruising civil war within the Liberal party over energy and climate policy, especially over emissions reductions targets.

His predecessor Malcolm Turnbull’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions – and their climate consequences – was fiercely resisted by the conservative right wing of his party, and ultimately forced him into capitulating on the policy.

“Climate change is likely making drought conditions in south-west and south-east Australia worse,” the Climate Council said in a report on the impacts of climate change on Australia’s current drought.

Changing climate has shifted Australia’s weather systems southward, reducing autumn and early winter rainfall.

“Climate change is also driving an increase in the intensity and frequency of hot days and heatwaves in Australia, exacerbating drought conditions,” the report said.

“The combined effect of increasing temperatures and declining rainfall across southern Australia mean that there is high confidence that time spent in drought will increase over the course of the century in southern Australia in the future if greenhouse gas emissions are not cut deeply and rapidly.”