TORRENTIAL rain has lashed much of the Riverina with some landholders recording more than 150mm in the gauge in the past few days.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Friday morning was a chance for some to get on the tractor and remove limbs from fences and begin the cleanup from what has been described a relentless and damaging weather event.
Don Kirkpatrick of "Maxwell Park," at Mangoplah said he was on the tractor with the front end loader, plus chainsaw in-hand, going around cleaning up the mess.
"There's a lot of branches down ... and that's just here," he said.
"I went for a drive around this morning and a lot of people have plenty of cleaning up to do," he said.
He empathised with smaller landholders, and those people who live in suburban areas who don't have quick access to machinery and equipment such as tractors to do the work themselves.
"There's going to be a lot of fencing repairs after this," Mr Kirkpatrick said.
After big volumes of rain fell late last year there were concerns for a lot of roads in the region. He said those roads had now copped further damage.
"I've also seen some big trees (fallen) down towards, Mangoplah," he said.
He measured 108mm in the gauge at "Maxwell Park" on Friday morning, but there was still more expected to arrive throughout the afternoon and into the evening, followed by the hope of a reprieve on Saturday.
Mr Kirkpatrick said the rain came in damaging and heavy falls. "At times we were getting as much as 40mm in an hour," he said.
"And in one downpour we got 63mm in as little as an hour."
"It's insane ... like tropical rain, yesterday I was trapped in the shed and couldn't get back to the house because the rain was so heavy it's unbelievable stuff for this area," he said.
However, to put the weather in perspective he said it was two years ago that the region was being severely affected by the devastating bush-fires.
Farmers around Marrar recorded 90mm to 150mm in the past three days up until Friday morning.
Garry Armstrong of "Armdale Park," Marrar was grateful to have finished harvesting crops on Christmas Eve and was able to beat the storm activity.
He said fortunately his property had not been hit too hard by the rain and storms. "We got about 50mm in total," he said.
"But there are other people around here who have had a lot of damage and received more than 150mm," he said.
"This is the nature of summer storms."