Farmers and fishers are waiting patiently for the monsoon season to arrive and bring heavy rain to the top end of the Northern Territory. So far, it's been a fairly light wet season with the weather bureau saying the shift into high gear is still at least a week away.
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00:00A few spots, but not much by top end standards.
00:06Typically we see a monsoon around right on Christmas pretty much.
00:11We've obviously got some good rain leading up to it.
00:13It seems to have gone a bit stale now and yeah the monsoon has gone a bit walkabout
00:16on us.
00:17At this tackle shop in Catherine, Trent Dewith is waiting for the heavy rain to set up the
00:22later runoff period that makes fishing in the NT so good.
00:26If we get a good monsoonal burst that produces a standard month's worth of rain in one or
00:32two weeks then that's what we really look forward to.
00:35But if we don't get that then the season could be in a bit of strife.
00:39The Catherine River is still below two metres at the bridge and the weather bureau says
00:44we'll be waiting a little while yet.
00:45We're looking at westerly winds picking up across the top end towards the end of next
00:50week.
00:51It may or may not bring the monsoon into the top end so it's going to be at least another
00:57week until we see the monsoon arrive.
01:00Rain is expected to pick up soon, but the conditions have to be right for the winds
01:05to reverse and bring on the monsoon.
01:07To get the really, really heavy falls you generally need something that's forcing the
01:11mechanism, so like a low or something like that.
01:15There's a lot riding on the rain for farmers too.
01:17The burgeoning NT cotton industry is aiming to plant 12,000 hectares of the crop this
01:22year.
01:24While some farms have had strong rain, others are still waiting.
01:28Sadly, down around Catherine and south-west of Catherine it's not ideal.
01:34The wet season was a little bit later coming in for some of those growers and they've had
01:38a bit of a challenging time getting their crop in the ground.
01:41Back at Rodden Rifle, Trent DeWitt says many interstate fishers will decide whether to
01:45bite on NT trips based on the next few weeks of weather.
01:49I love seeing the excitement on them when they do get out of the car and they're fired
01:52up to go to a river and catch a barra.
01:55So yeah, it's a huge impact on the NT economy.
01:58A wet season dragging its heels.