There's not many things better for a bushie than to watch that first flush of muddy water rush down a dry creek bed, which is what a number of producers in outback Queensland and the Northern Territory have been able to do this week.
In the north west, Jacqueline and Robert Curley and their family had the pleasure of enjoying the sight of the Cloncurry River finally flowing through their Gipsy Plains property, thanks to isolated storms on January 7 and again this week.
The 30mm received earlier finally put out bushfires begun by lightning strikes, which Ms Curley said had ended up burning about 8100ha of mostly spinifex country they'd been resting.
"It's nature's way," she said. "We'd agisted 1000 cattle to let the place regenerate and reseed and it's now ashes."
She said they had been hot fires that breaks four blades wide weren't able to hold, thanks to storm winds, and so the rain was very welcome.
The Cloncurry River carves a path through Gipsy Plains, to Sedan Dip and into the Flinders.
Ms Curley said storms in the area were so far scattered.
"It builds up every afternoon and goes away, typical for a wet season build-up," she said. "We've had a start now."
At the other end of the state, in the still drought-declared Diamantina Shire, Birdsville locals have been fishing for crawchies and catfish from the Old Crossing on the Diamantina River, which has begun flowing again.
Karen Brook, visiting her home town for the summer, and her two sons, were among the eager group angling for a feed when they heard the river was rising.
"I remember coming down here as a kid and watching the adults pulling yabbies out with their hands and filling eskies," she reminisced. "We'd go back to town and cook them and eat them dipped in vinegar."
Birdsville has recorded a total of 33.4mm this week, in four falls, the biggest being 19.6mm on Monday.
Ms Brook said the river was up for between 48 and 72 hours and was now level with the old cement crossing, now superseded.
"The old crossing was pretty low - plenty of times people would have to boat supplies across when it ran," she said. "The river didn't come anywhere near stopping traffic this week though."
Some good rain has been recorded west into the Northern Territory, where Dallas Scott reported falls of up to 55mm overnight on Thursday, that's seen a surge of red-tinged water rush down Fraser's Creek at MacDonald Downs in the Harts Range.
"We got really good rain in November and a bit more just before Christmas so it's really green here, and we've been lucky to have escaped bushfires," Ms Scott said.
The creek ran in November but not as much as this week.
Ms Scott said it wasn't interrupting any traffic and would be gone in a couple of days, being a sandy-bottomed creek.
"The storms are all isolated at the moment but from the looks of it, there might be more to come," she said.
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
