The Nullarbor region in Australia experienced a significant amount of rainfall last month, with some areas recording over 300 millimeters of rain in just a couple of days. The flooding that resulted from this drought-breaking rain event closed the Trans Australian Railway Line for three weeks and briefly affected the Eyre Highway, leading to consequences on the availability of supplies in Western Australian supermarkets.
The Eyre Bird Observatory near Cocklebiddy, the closest weather station, recorded 352.4mm of rain in March, ten times the usual monthly average. For pastoralists like Greg Campbell, whose family has been in the Nullarbor region since the 1960s, the flooding was an unprecedented event. Greg mentioned that despite experiencing some floods in the past, nothing compared to the extent of the recent flooding, with water levels reaching record heights.
For stations like Rawlinna, located about 400 kilometers east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, the flooding had devastating effects, submerging the homestead and workers' accommodation in floodwater. The overseer Gemma Chandler, along with her husband Craig, lived in a bus on higher ground, surviving the peak of the floods. While water levels have reduced since the flooding, the cleanup process is ongoing, with the loss of the homestead built in the 1960s being particularly heartbreaking for the couple.