Once drought-ravaged farm in outback NSW now surrounded by water

The only way in-and-out of the 1000-acre property in Nyngan is currently by boat; a strange change after battling through years of drought.

While “Wiralla” has been spared damage thanks to a levee, Battye told 9news.com.au only “60cm of freeboard” was left.

Thankfully by sunrise, a total of just 74mm had fallen.

“We’re hoping we don’t get much more,” Battye said.

“The house is completely surrounded by water.

“We have 1000 acres here and 16,000 at Gongolgon which is also inundated with water and more to come up there, as this water moves through the Bogan system.

Wiralla is home to a head of 600 sheep, 40 cattle, as well as crops of wheat and oats.

Over the past week Battye has raced against breaks in the rain to move “stranded” sheep to high ground – with the help of family visiting from Orange.

“We wouldn’t have been able to save the stock we have without them,” she said, adding she has fears for livestock on her other property.

“(There’s) 6000 sheep at ‘Boonery’, our other place, and they are all in one paddock on a hill.

“SES did a fodder drop on Sunday or Monday, I can’t remember, the days are blending into each other.

“Crops here at ‘Wiralla’ are submerged for about the third time since sowing, but this is the worst.”

For farmers living in outback NSW the elements have proved relentless over the past five years.

Before the floods came the Black Summer fires, and before that there was a decade-long drought.

“We owned a 127,000 acre station in Queensland from 2011 to 2017 and had drought for the five out of six years,” Battye said.

“We then moved to Nyngan and ended up with the worst drought I’ve ever seen; no stock water, no feed.

“The drought here was worse than the bad years we had in Queensland”.

“(But) I would rather the water than the dust.”

This morning Battye said her boys are checking on the livestock via a kayak, while she’s in the midst of organising a chopper to drop more hay.

There is no end in sight for the wet weather, with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warning “almost every river” west of the Great Dividing Range in NSW could see moderate to major flooding in the coming hours and days.