THOUSANDS of head of livestock are believed dead and many kilometres of fencing have been destroyed by Christmas-New Year flooding after falls of up to 400 millimetres and more in North West NSW.
What started as a hugely welcome break has morphed into disaster for some, but the exact toll won’t be known until the water recedes and farmers are able to move around their properties more freely.
On “Mundiwa”, near Brewarrina, 100mm was recorded on Christmas Day and a staggering 350mm on Boxing Day – more than an entire year’s average in two days.
Since the Castlereagh River peaked at Coonamble on Tuesday night, the focus has shifted downstream to the Brewarrina district.
The State Emergency Service (SES) estimated at least 300 properties were isolated between Bre-
warrina and Bourke and 60 more downstream of Coonamble.
Another wall of water is heading down the Castlereagh into the Barwon and more thunderstorms are likely in inland NSW later this week, although these are not expected to drastically worsen the situation.
This week SES had up to 17 helicopters operating between Walgett and Bourke and Wee Waa on the Namoi River delivering food to flood bound homesteads, dropping fodder for stranded stock and lifting stranded stock to higher ground in special crates.
An Industry and Investment NSW (I and I) spokesman said SES helicopter crews were taking GPS co-ordinates when they saw stranded stock and informed owners.
Farmers were also having to shoot sheep which were too bogged or too weak to be rescued.
Despite some criticism in the early stages of the operation of a shortage of crates, flood response operations co-ordinator for I and I NSW, Simon Oliver, said the supply of crates was now “ample”.
He urged farmers to report stock losses and flood damage to the I and I emergency hotline, (1800) 814 647.
Member for Barwon, Kevin Humphries, said Coonamble shire had estimated infrastructure damage to be at about $3.5 million, while the Brewarrina shire had lost large numbers of stock, with reports of up to 14,000 sheep and 4000 goats either drowned or bogged.
There could be up to $20m to $30m worth of damage caused by flooding between the Coonamble, Bourke, Warren, Narrabri, Warrumbungle Shire Councils, Walgett and Gilgandra, he said.
Darling Livestock Health and Pest Authority (LHPA) senior ranger, Colin Betts, said the heavy rain started around Enngonia and spread throughout the Birrie, Bokhara and Culgoa River areas to cause moderate to major flooding in the Brewarrina and Walgett districts.
“At this stage we have unconfirmed reports of stock losses, but we are anticipating a large number of stock to be lost,” he said.
“The SES has done a tremendous job doing fodder drops for the past five days and a number of stock were also lifted by air to lighter country to improve their situation.”
He urged landholders to report damage and stock losses to their local LHPA as soon as possible.
Owner of “Wongal”, between the Birri and Culgoa rivers north west Brewarrina, Michael Carter, said the situation was “disastrous – but we’re not the only ones”.
"We've had to shoot a lot of sheep – I've never seen anything like it in all my years here," Mr Carter said.
He said even four-wheel drive vehicles were getting bogged so he could only sit and wait and count what stock was left when the water receded.
Read more on Christmas rain impact in this week's The Land.
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