Aussie town praying for weekend sunshine after pub's campground forced to close

Yahoo

3 days ago

Sunshine is expected across Australia's east coast on Saturday, allowing the ground to dry after multiple towns received their heaviest rain in decades. Over in the tiny Victorian town of Dargo, its famous pub will remain open, but campers wanting to pitch a tent in its 10-acre paddock out the back will be turned away as the ground is absolutely sodden.
Astonishing photographs highlight the scale of the deluge this week that caused the Dargo River to overflow. A large sign listing campground rules can be seen sinking into a puddle in a paddock.
Tim Telford stepped back from behind the bar at Dargo Hotel to talk to Yahoo News on Friday afternoon, saying he hoped sunshine over the weekend would cause the river level to drop. The town which has a population of just 150, welcomes tourists from around the country. He reckons by next weekend the ground will be dry enough to reopen the campground, and the regulars will know to bring their gumboots.
'We get a different crowd over winter. About 30 or 40 per cent of the guys are deer hunters, and the rest are just campers with a few days off who want to build a fire and drink beer,' he said.
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Fans of the pub have been shocked at the state of the ground, and hundreds have responded on social media. "Think outside the box, rent out a bunch of houseboats in there instead," one person quipped. "Stay safe, everyone," another said. Another person simply wrote, "Moist".
The locals that have been happiest about the situation are the sheep, as decent amounts of rain this winter have produced lush grass. While there's been a lot of rain this week, neighbouring towns have been dry and visitors are surprised at how green Dargo looks.
"Everyone who comes to Dargo thinks we must have a real good weather band. People from Omeo and Licola, in the two mountain ranges each side of us, say it's dry as. And if you go into Bairnsdale, everything is dead," Tim said.
"This is how it should be in Dargo. This winter's been good. The farmers are happy."
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Multiple towns in Victoria received surprisingly extreme weather events this week according to analysis by meteorological service Weatherzone. An hour's drive south of Dargo, the town of Bairnsdale had its heaviest July rain in nine years, with 28.6mm in a 24-hour period to Thursday morning.
Further east, the town of Bruthen had 73.6mm over the same period, the heaviest July rainfall in 20 years. But even more significant was the rainfall in Traralgon, 40.6mm, the most during the month in 23 years, and Erica, which received 53mm, its heaviest July rainfall in 41 years.
But it was NSW where truly remarkable amounts of rain fell. The highest accumulated rainfall in that state was at Jervis Bay airfield on the south coast, where 331mm fell between Monday and Thursday.
During the same east coast low, Ulludulla experienced 308mm, and Robertson received 288mm. 'So many towns in NSW experienced more than 200mm of rain, there were at least 10 in the east,' Weatherzone meteorologist Yoska Hernandez told Yahoo News.
While this Saturday looks to be sunny in NSW and Victoria, thunderstorms are expected in parts of the state on Sunday.
'The heaviest rainfall will be in northeastern Victoria and eastern NSW. The system on Sunday is looking like something we would see in summer or spring, so that means we will probably see severe thunderstorms,' Hernandez said.
'Those thunderstorms might be isolated to scattered during Sunday, including Sydney. There won't be a huge amount of precipitation.
'Showers on Sunday could reach as far south as Dargo, but that would only be 10mm or less.'
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