Record rained-out Riverina Field Days leaves business spirits dampened

Organisers of the two-day Griffith event said they were forced to call it off on Saturday morning due to safety reasons caused by the wet weather that started on Friday and persisted through the following day.

Over 200 exhibitors, ranging from agricultural businesses, building and construction, clothing, cleaning and entertainment, got the chance to show off their products to the crowd who braved the wet weather on day one.

But after a night of heavy rain, they all had to start packing up their stalls on Saturday morning and the bad news was shared to the public via a Facebook post.

Justin James from JJ Farm Equipment was still cleaning up the leftover equipment on Monday afternoon, saying he was told by the organisers at 8am on Saturday that the day wouldn't be going ahead.

He said the company had people coming to look at products on the Saturday, even flying in a sales representative from Dalby to sell a $1 million header, but had to call their customers in the morning saying the event was cancelled.

"I think they jumped the gun," Mr James said.

"That field day for us probably would've cost us 10 grand just between the site and the tent hire and everything else.

"On top of that, you have permits to move every bit of gear, the two days setting up prior, your staff moving gear that we're not getting paid for, then obviously the pack up afterwards.

"It's just a big expense for one day."

Simon Codemo from Codemo Machinery Services was not surprised the Saturday was cancelled, although he was happy that the area received some much needed rain.

"The Friday was quite a good day, there was some good support from the farmers and that, and then Saturday it was just too wet," Mr Codemo said.

"I didn't leave the field day site till 6pm on the Friday night.

"When I finally did go home, I could hear the rain still outside and then through the night, it just didn't stop.

"After this rain event, once these crops come up the district's going to be looking fantastic."

Griffith recorded 53 millimetres of rain, Yanco saw 36mm and Narrandera 20mm in the 24 hours from 9am Friday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The soaking means Griffith has recorded its wettest ever 24 hours for May, while its the heaviest rainfall total the town has seen since early January 2022.

Bureau meteorologist Helen Reid said while rain isn't unheard of in May in the Riverina, the way the downpour formed was a bit different for this time of year.

"There was more tropical moisture feeding in on this occasion, and that's unusual at this time of year," Ms Reid said.

"When you had this system coming in from the north and over central NSW, as it's moved further east it's been able to reinforce that showers activity on the coast.

"But as it's gone across, it has actually provided some rainfall to some areas of western NSW.

"Griffith for example, you'd expect about 30 to 35 millimetres in the entire month of May, so we've got more than that in just one day."

Mr James believes hosting the field day in a different spot and at a different time of year would be better for those involved, as it is fairly common to have wet weather around the time of the event.

"They've got it in the showgrounds in the middle of the town, we bring along all our big gear, it's clumsy, it's big, it makes a mess, it's hard to get here.

"You need to move it to July or some other time of the year when everyone's no busy and change the location somewhere on the edge of town so it's easy to access."