Recent heavy rain across the Cobar Shire has caused damage to fences and washed away roads and drains on a number of properties, but nobody is complaining with the record heavy dump welcomed by all.
Cobar Shire has experienced an absolute drenching of rain this month with the Bureau of Meteorology recording 103.6mm to date in town which is almost two and a half times the annual average rainfall for January.
The totals vary across the shire with the Princes at Lachlan Downs south of Cobar, recording a whopping total of 250mm from January 1 to 19.
The Bureau reports January 17 was Cobar’s wettest day of the month with 37.4mm falling in the town rain gauge while Jillian Prince recorded 115mm at Lachlan Downs on the same day.
“It’s the biggest rainfall we have ever seen to start a year off,” Jillian told The Cobar Weekly.
“It’s pretty close to our yearly average and it’s fallen in the space of two weeks.”
While there has been some minor damage caused to fencing, Jillian said they were pleased to see the rain and all the water that’s lying around the property.
The Weekly checked in with a number of property owners across the Cobar Shire, and it appears all got good rain, with the majority falling in the south of the shire.
The Bureau reports a total of 135.2mm has been recorded at their Mt Hope weather observation site, and 102mm of that all fell on one day, January 8.
Phil Bruce at Pine Ridge, 60km south west of Cobar towards Ivanhoe has recorded 199.5mm since January 1 compared to the 194mm he received for the whole of 2023.
“The country definitely needed it,” Phil said.
Phil has been at Pine Ridge for almost 20 years and said he can’t remember a time where there has been this much rain so early.
He recalls the best previous start to the year was 2012.
The Reschkes at Boulkra west of Cobar are up to 191mm for the year.
The Allens at Nullogoola, 45km west of Cobar, received 184mm of rain up until the morning of January 18, while the Moselys at Etiwanda in the south east of the shire have already recorded 170mm this month.
Rana and John Manns at Dijoe, 75km north of Cobar report their January total is 127.2mm.
Rana described it as “the perfect start to the year” as did Barry Oliver at Kaleno (100km south west of Cobar). Barry reports they’ve had a total of 169mm this year.
At their two properties north of Cobar, Belinda Blake and Scott Preisig received 144mm at Merrylands and 115mm at Maryvale.
“It’s a great start to the year and with the warm humid weather, the grass is really getting going,” Belinda said.
“Hopefully we will see a lift in stock prices over the next few months to bring back a bit of confidence in the industry.”
Karen and Peter Maxwell at Dine Downs, on the south eastern edge of the shire near Euabalong, received 76.2mm.
“It’s good to see that they’ve had rain all around the shire,” Peter commented.
Bob Sinclair at Berangabah, 167km south west of Cobar, reports they’ve had a total of 67mm this month.
“It’s not the best we’ve had in January but it’s still good,” Bob said.
Near neighbour, Jenni Rogers at Kulwin report they’ve had a total of 105mm.
Chris Clark at Kilmont Flats 95km north east of Cobar reckons he must have “an umbrella” over his place.
He said on parts of his place they’ve had 105mm and others only 60mm.
“It’s a long way short of a lot of others in the area but it has run enough water to see us into winter and a pretty good start to some feed coming along.
“Fingers crossed we can get some more rain soon,” Chris said.
