Rains Finally Easing Austrlia's Big Dry, But Murray-Darling Basin Still In Drought - Reuters

[hatrack]

SYDNEY - It is finally raining in eastern Australia, turning outback dustbowls into inland seas and beginning to end the country's worst drought in 100 years.

Dams are filling, farmers are hoping for their best crops in years and food prices are stabilising as a La Nina weather pattern washes away drought which has persisted since 2002. A senior weather official told Reuters that recent rains had already ended the drought in some areas -- the closest the bureau has come to declaring an end to the drought.

"Short-term droughts are becoming confined to increasingly restricted areas," senior weatherman Blair Trewin said. Many areas are still in drought, including Australia's main foodbowl the Murray-Darling Basin.

But 650 kilometres northwest of Sydney, outback farming families near Burke are wading knee-deep in water as floodwaters move south through swollen Warrego and Paroo Rivers which run through remote areas of Queensland state into New South Wales.

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