Australia Weather News

Storms that lashed Western Australia's South West overnight have brought more than 100 millimetres of rain and minor flooding to inland areas, damaging a local landmark and leaving farmers counting their losses.

About 114mm of rain fell in the last 24 hours in Dardanup, 180 kilometres south of Perth, while the neighbouring Ferguson Valley region received 105mm of rain.

Gnomesville, a popular tourist attraction featuring thousands of transplanted garden gnomes in the Ferguson Valley, was hit particularly hard by the storm.

Bunbury resident Natasha Linley came out to visit the display this morning.

"There's a lot of gnomes that have met their final time here," she said.

"I'd just come out to have a look and it's a bit sad to see — it's a beautiful place to come, but it needs a bit of a clean-up."

About 10 minutes drive south-east, Bryn Kettle had just finished planting a variety of fruit and vegetables at his Yabberup property east of Donnybrook when the storm hit.

He was unsure how much of the crop would survive and be saleable, after rain flooded his garden.

"It just didn't stop raining," Mr Kettle said.

"I have woken up this morning to a flooded mess in my garden area on the farm. Unfortunately, it's one of the lowest areas on the property — I'm a bit devastated about it."

He said it was unusual to have so much rain at this time of the year.

"Probably about a third to a half of it underwater, at least," Mr Kettle said.

"All the ground is saturated, so now I've got to clean up and pump the water away if I can today, and potentially try and save some of the crop."

'It's extraordinary'

In the Ferguson Valley, orange growers Rob Manning and Diana Neggo were watching the rain fall on their driveway and fill their gutters.

"It was heavy and continuous rain, which was so unusual," Mr Manning said.

He said the rain was a "bonus" after a hot, dry summer last year, but he was worried about what was to come.

"We probably don't have to water the oranges for a couple of weeks," Mr Manning said.

"[But] if this is prolonged and ongoing, then we have worries about root rot and collar rot … especially if we get these sorts of events just as the fruit is getting ready to be picked. We have a problem called fruit split, where [there is] too much water in a hurry and the skins don't cope and they split and the oranges are ruined.

Mr Manning described the rain as "extraordinary".

"This is completely unbelievable … this sort of weather event — it's a worry. It's a warning sign that climate change is real and we do need to take some actions against it now."

Ms Neggo said the nearby Ferguson River was just a "trickle" a day ago and was now full.

"It actually broke its banks overnight. We can see it from the house, there's a lot of water flowing through there," she said.

"There was lightning and thunder and all the gutters were overflowing. It was just amazing, especially this time of the year.

"We were almost a little scared because our driveway was flooding."

Cloud train brings rain

The Bureau of Meteorology put out a severe weather warning yesterday as thunderstorms lashed the South West.

Duty forecaster Jessica Lingard said most of the rain fell inland between Harvey and Shannon.

"It's called training … it's like a train and all its little carriages, but replace all of those with clouds," she said.

"They all just move along their little railway track and they all drop all of their rain in the same little corridor.

"On either side, Capel got 17mm, Collie only 22mm … but if you were underneath that train of clouds, [there were] huge rainfall totals."

She said the storm was heading east, but showers would likely continue throughout the day.