![A spectacular image of a storm near the ABC transmission tower at Dooen, north-east of Horsham, last week. Photo: Greg Deutscher, Horsham Camera Club. A spectacular image of a storm near the ABC transmission tower at Dooen, north-east of Horsham, last week. Photo: Greg Deutscher, Horsham Camera Club.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/5Q2j7ezUfQBfUJsaqK3gfB/abe50929-f45a-4d8b-9ecc-ebf730e7dd0f.JPG/r0_0_720_482_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
FURTHER heavy rainfall has led to yet more floods and crop damage across saturated south-eastern Australia.
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Hard hit areas included the sodden Central West of NSW where there has been spectacular vision of the Wyangala Dam on the Lachlan River spilling.
At present the spill from the dam is an incredible 230,000 megalitres, or 9200 full Olympic sized pools, a day.
Other areas to feel the brunt of big storms include Victoria's Wimmera, where separate strips in both the north and the south of the region have recorded over 100mm for the week, and the eastern SA Mallee.
Bruce Watson, Parkes, said it was difficult to comprehend the volume of water.
"We farm on the Billabong Creek so we are used to seeing some flooding but this is the biggest flood I have ever seen by far," Mr Watson said.
"The water was just three inches from going through my parents' place and that has never got close to flooding before," he said.
"We've had multiple floods throughout the year but this one has been by far the biggest.
"I went to help sandbag my parents' place in our Rogator (self-propelled boom spray), which has a very high clearance, and the water was still getting up close to the axles, there was just so much water."
He said at present the family remained cut off by flood waters.
In terms of crop damage he said it would be difficult to tell until flood waters subsided.
"We had 350 hectares of recently sown sorghum hit by overland flooding, it was in an area that does not traditionally flood but there was so much water."
"The winter crop plant was smaller as it was so wet at planting, but we've got faba beans and canola that have been in water for days, we just don't know and at present the priority will be on the clean-up and restoring access."
Trent Oakley, Pinnaroo, South Australia said the region was sitting on one of it biggest crops on record but farmers were anxiously watching the weather after further storm activity over the weekend.
"There was around 50mm in the area and with farmers just getting into harvest it is not what you want to see,' Mr Oakley said.
"Early yield reports from the barley have been excellent, there was a little bit of tipping in it, we're hoping that this rain does not cause too much quality damage."
Mr Oakley said some farms had been hard hit by hail storms over the weekend, while he said there was also concern over seed shatter.
"After the weekend I'd expect there will be a lot of grain on the ground."
In Victoria, Grant Hausler, Goroke, in the west Wimmera said after dodging the heaviest rain through early spring the big wet had hit with a vengeance.
"People recorded their wettest October since 1975 and then a lot of places have had over 100mm on top of that in the past week, so it has got very wet, although not everywhere got those really heavy storms last week," he said.
"What we have seen is the good strong ground holding up better, where people have cropped paddocks that traditionally get wet they are going to struggle."
He said farmers were still hopeful that cereals and canola would perform well, but said pulse crops had incurred serious damage from the wet and associated disease.
However, the rain has not been bad for everyone.
In the Victorian Mallee, Matthew Witney, Dodgshun Medlin agronomist, said falls last week had been lighter, around 25-30mm in general and that the wet spring had set up crops well in the normally arid region.
"It's all set up nicely as we start to get into harvest," Mr Witney said.
"It has been a unusual year for the Mallee and there is excellent yield potential in the cereal crops," he said.
"Early harvest feedback from Ouyen out to Underbool point to barley crops in excess of 4 tonnes a hectare, which is exceptional for that area."
"There have been some issues with low test weights due to rain on ripe crops, and we're seeing some lentil crops struggling due to excess moisture but overall most farmers here are really keen to get into it and get started, especially with concerns about weather."