RELIF from the ongoing drought was the Christmas present every farmer wanted and they got their wish as rain started to fall on December 28. And it kept coming, starting with 11mm on the 28th, then 17.4mm on the 29th, another 30mm on the 30th, and the biggest fall of all, 33.2mm on Sunday, January 3.

All up, Goondiwindi received around 88.2mm (three and a half inches on the old scale) of rain.

It was a similar story at Inglewood (72mm), North Star (95mm), Mungindi (99mm), Talwood (100mm), Yelarbon and Yetman.

“We’ve been very fortunate. Due to the ‘high flow’ of the river, irrigators with pumps along Queensland side of the river had 36 hours to pump water,” said Paddy Martin of Namoi Cotton.

Those on the NSW side were allowed to take 6percent of their water allocation.

But, and it’s a big but, the drought has not broken. “The situation for cotton growers before Christmas was dire, and we’ve got enough water now ‘til the end of January.

“We got only 16inches (of rain) last season, which is 10inches below the average,” Paddy said.

The Macintyre River rose 5.8 metres on December 31.

SunWater, the company that manages Queensland Rivers along with the Department of Natural Resources and Mines declared a “high flow” event.

Goondiwindi Regional Council’s Director of Technical Services, Dave Burges said council was able to pump 100mg/L for the Water Park and 30mg/L for the Botanic Gardens.

The height of the rise was back down to 2m by Monday morning.

The last major flood saw the river rise by 10.67metres in January 1996.

Last week’s peak was a long way short of the record 12.20 metre rise reached in 1956.

Understandably after the flood, construction started on a levee bank in 1957.

Eleven metres is the highest flood level recorded since the levee bank was built.

If you would like more information about flow levels, as measured at each weir along the McIntyre River, go to the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology website and follow the links. You can track the flow all the way along the river.

Yesterday, finding an agronomist who was not out in the field was akin to Aussie opener Shane Watson scoring a ton, virtually impossible.

That can only mean good news for farmers across the board.