Sheep should be "OK" at iconic Rawlinna station

Mr Wood, his two dogs and mailbag were flown to a neighbour's property by a helicopter this morning, after rising water cut off power supplies and caused flooding inside and outside buildings including staff accommodation and the main homestead.

As of this morning, he said 280mm had been recorded at the homestead and 320mm at depot, which pushed this year's total to date to four times more than the whole of 2023 - in just two months.

Speaking to Farm Weekly, Mr Wood said he couldn't see any sheep on his way out, as it was still raining.

However, he was fairly confident they were OK.

"These sheep live in the bush, it is their job to survive and there is no reason they shouldn't be doing that," Mr Wood said.

"My team at depot checked on the wether weaners with the intention of moving them into a bigger paddock yesterday and they reckon they were absolutely fine.

"They were standing up near the trees and just trod away - they were more than happy.

"I am fairly confident we are OK, but still worried enough to go and check them at my first available opportunity."

Keeping an eye on weather reports last week, Mr Wood, with the support of staff, moved sheep out of holding paddocks into bigger areas before the rain hit.

Mr Wood said running big numbers in relatively small paddocks was damaging for both the country and sheep.

"It gets wet and there's not enough room for them," he said.

"They tear it up and eat all the food that is in there, whereas if they are spread out a bit they perform a lot better.

"(From where they are now) the sheep are able to head south to the top end where there are bigger paddocks with smaller numbers if they need to and there is a bit of dry land around still.

"It's not like the whole place is underwater and there are raging torrents - it is all slow moving, creeping water."

Mr Wood plans on flying over the station and checking on the sheep when the rain finally stops.