In a year that has seen three major floods, and heavy downpours, it will not be surprising to local residents that the Valley could be headed for one of its wettest years ever.

After the most recent week of rainfall, Nambucca Heads more than doubled its average rainfall for June, with 262mm (10.5 inches in the old scale). It still falls considerably short of the town’s historical high, with Bureau of Meteorology records showing the heaviest falls in June 1950, when 561mm was recorded. That was followed up by a huge 704mm in July of that year.

Nambucca Valley residents will be hoping this wet start to the winter does not continue, as dirt roads are cut up and gouges are dug from tar surfaces around the shire by the seemingly never-ending rain.

Nambucca Shire Council is already counting the cost to local infrastructure from three floods and a series of heavy downpours, while producers have watched their pasture lands inundated again and again, children have been isolated from schools and rural communities stuck in their homes, surrounded by rainwater that has nowhere to run.

Macksville and Bowraville are also recording historically heavy downpours, with Macksville recording 1189mm up to the end of May, only 220mm short of its annual average rainfall. Bowraville was already 300mm ahead of its average annual total by May’s end, with 1613mm.

The highest ever annual totals for these three local centres all came in 1950, with: Nambucca Heads 3015mm; Macksville 2449mm; and Bowraville 2552mm.