Showers of hope for FNQ growers
ROADS on the Tablelands may be dotted with potholes, but it’s a welcome inconvenience for the Far North’s food bowl as a wet season deluge firms a productive winter for the region’s farmers.
In the 24 hours to 9am Wednesday Atherton’s Solar Crescent rain gauge had received 50mm, with the heavier falls reported to the east at Malanda which recorded 56mm and Millaa Millaa which received 72mm. Tinaroo Falls Dam reported 41mm in the same period with its capacity 81.86 per cent on Wednesday.
Tablelands deputy mayor and Millaa Millaa cattle farmer Kevin Cardew said the rain was a welcome sight for farmers following a dry March.
“Water is our most precious commodity,” he said.
“This is welcome rain in April. It will take us through (the dry season) hopefully.
“If the dam is about 90 per cent or thereabouts, that should hold the farmers over to the next wet season and it’s looking pretty good.
“We know when the Tinaroo supply is pretty full, the underground supply is also high, so keeping that dam full is very important to us. And there’s negotiations going on now to have the North Johnstone diversion into that dam to keep it topped up.
“That’s very important because our farmers are starting to diversify from the standard peanuts and potatoes into sugarcane, blueberries, bananas and avocados which are all high-water usage crops.”
Tablelands Pumps and Pipes and Rural store’s Mel Quilliam said the region welcomed the “flogging of rain” after a number of poor wet seasons.
“We emptied out about 150mm out of the rain gauge the other day and that was from a day and a half,” Ms Quilliam said.
“And (on Wednesday) it was heavy again.
“But this rain is really welcome for the farmers because it fills the underground tables up and it’s less stress for them.
“You don’t get to speak to a lot of farmers in weather like this because they hibernate and do shed work. But a lot of farms run irrigation so they’ll be really happy with this.
“It will save them a lot of money.”