{"id":100479,"date":"2025-07-28T22:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T22:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/100479\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T22:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T22:27:13","slug":"rain-brings-relief-in-parched-victoria-and-puts-smiles-on-farmers-faces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/100479\/","title":{"rendered":"Rain brings relief in parched Victoria and puts smiles on farmers’ faces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drought-affected farmers in Victoria are rejoicing after soaking rain brought relief to their parched paddocks over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Most of the state received between 20 and 60 millimetres of rain, with some areas getting more than others.<\/p>\n

At Werrimull, west of Mildura, Nick Hards tipped 20 millimetres out of his gauge.<\/p>\n

“It’s a lifesaver, to be honest,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Hards said.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to give a lot of [farmers] a lot of hope for some sort of outcome for the year.<\/p>\n

“This brings us to about 50mm for the year. It’s the toughest season we’ve had for quite a while, rainfall-wise.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nick Hards says the weekend rain was a “lifesaver”. (Supplied: Nick Hards)<\/p>\n

Dams filling up<\/p>\n

Cattle farmer Janice Newnham scored a “fantastic” 50mm at Walwa, in the state’s north-east.<\/p>\n

“The rain came down quite densely, so it was very grey but the catchment dams are all filled,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The calves who have dropped over the last couple of weeks are looking a bit cold and scared.<\/p>\n

“They haven’t seen much rain before.”<\/p>\n

\"Cattle<\/p>\n

Janice Newnham says her new calves aren’t used to rain. (Supplied: Janice Newnham)<\/p>\n

Over at Ararat in Victoria’s west, about 30mm of rain fell on Rob Armstrong’s two farms.<\/p>\n

“Oh it was wonderful,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

His dry dams started filling up and the slippery conditions took a bit of getting used to again.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t even remember how to put [my vehicle] in four-wheel drive. It’s that long since I’ve used it,” Mr Armstrong joked.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rob Armstrong says the rain was “wonderful”. (Supplied: Rob Armstrong)<\/p>\n

Farmers will ‘sleep a lot better’<\/p>\n

Rainfall deficiencies have continued across Australia’s southern agricultural areas<\/a> for months.<\/p>\n

Mr Armstrong said it was a relief to get a good drop of rain.<\/p>\n

“Not having to worry about water is a wonderful thing on a farm,” he said.<\/p>\n

“A lot of farmers will sleep a lot better because of this.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a knife edge for a long time.”<\/p>\n

For Ben Charleson, the rain has “taken the pressure off for the time being”.<\/p>\n

The sheep and cropping farmer at Kingston, north of Ballarat, said he was “lucky” to get 63mm.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got water in a few dams, and there’s water running around the place now, which is terrific,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rob Armstrong’s dams have filled up. (Supplied: Rob Armstrong)<\/p>\n

Still behind the eight ball<\/p>\n

Mr Charleson said his crops would still need a “good” spring to do well this year and his fodder needed warmth to grow.<\/p>\n

“It’s definitely set us up, but we’re behind the eight ball to where we usually would be.<\/p>\n

But Nick Hards said he needed more rain for his crops to keep growing near Mildura.<\/p>\n

“Ideally we need follow-up rain in a week or two,” Mr Hards said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nick Hards got 20 millimetres of rain on his farm over the weekend. (Supplied: Nick Hards)<\/p>\n

Water restrictions lifted in Apollo Bay<\/p>\n

Winter rainfall has boosted water storages in the south-west of the state, after hitting low levels in early June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Barwon Water said the Apollo Bay, Marengo and Skenes Creek storages were now at 68 per cent, allowing stage 2 water restrictions to be lifted in those towns on Friday, August 1.<\/p>\n

Stage 2 water restrictions remain in place in Daylesford and Hepburn in central Victoria and Euroa and Violet Town in the state’s north-east.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The water storage for Apollo Bay got down to 20 per cent in early June. (Supplied: Barwon Water)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drought-affected farmers in Victoria are rejoicing after soaking rain brought relief to their parched paddocks over the weekend.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":100480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,6772,10111,12833,50,6773,8773,65512,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-100479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-drought","10":"tag-farmers","11":"tag-farming","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rain","14":"tag-rainfall","15":"tag-regional-victoria","16":"tag-rural"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114933219081408345","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}