Food producers battle as parts of South Australia record driest year

Parts of South Australia have experienced their driest year on record and food producers have been counting the cost. 

The Bureau of Meterology (BOM) said lowest annual rainfall totals were recorded in places including Maitland on the Yorke Peninsula and Wirrabara Forest in the Southern Flinders.

The Bureau has released its preliminary records for 2024, with a full report to be released next month.

BOM meteorologist Chris Kent said much of the state’s agricultural area had experienced “very much below-average rainfall”.

“Through the Yorke Peninsula and part of the Mid North, some locations recorded [the] lowest yearly rainfalls on record, so it wasn’t a good year for rainfall across the south of the state,” he said.

Adelaide also had a lower than average rainfall, and was the driest capital city in the country.

“We ended up with 346 millimetres for the year when the median is up around 526, so quite significant deficits there,” Mr Kent said. 

According to the Bureau, rainfall was below average for most of Victoria, parts of north-west and south-west WA, western and southern areas of Tasmania, south-eastern NSW and parts of central Queensland. 

Bees struggling

Conditions have been difficult as producers handle the dry weather across the state.

For beekeeper Mark Rose, who is based south of Adelaide in Port Elliot, the weather has had devastating effects.

He said the lack of water meant even if trees were flowering, there was not enough nectar for the bees.

“With no nectar, there’ll be no honey,” he said. 

“The bees are starting to starve.”

Mr Rose said he had reaped only a portion of his usual harvest, and has made it through the year surviving on existing stock. 

“Honey-wise, I can harvest around about a tonne of honey in a year. This year, it’s a couple of 100 kilos,” he said.

“Luckily, I’m sitting on some of last year’s stock that will keep me going meanwhile, and we just hope for the best, but, it’s not looking good [with the] long-range forecast.”

Mr Rose said a lack of water meant he had to feed his bees sugar syrup. 

“The bees drink it, it keeps them alive,” he said.

“It’s not very good long-term, but it’s a stopgap.” 

Grain grower feeling the impact 

Tim Correll grows lentils, barley and wheat at Arthurton, on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula.

He said his farm received 210 millimetres of rain through 2024, half its usual annual rainfall. 

This year’s wheat crop largely relied on subsoil moisture from the ground, courtesy of rain in November, 2023. 

“It obviously affected yield, it affected biomass a bit too, it also created a late start as well,” Mr Correll said. 

He said he also held concerns for chemical residues in paddocks in the dry weather, and said farmers would have to be careful when selecting which crop varieties could be sown next season. 

‘Tale of two cities’ 

Bureau meteorologist Chris Kent said the dry conditions were not felt everywhere.

Moomba, in the state’s north, provisionally recorded 432mm, compared to its average rainfall of 169mm.

“…Areas in the north-east and north-west recorded very much above-average rainfall for 2024,” Mr Kent said. 

“So it was a ‘tale of two cities’, kind of north and south of the state in 2024.”

Other parts of the country also received above average rainfall including the Northern Territory, northern and inland areas of WA, large parts of Queensland and northern and inland areas of New South Wales.

Mr Kent said it was difficult to measure how 2025 was going to compare to 2024, but said there was a “slight signal” for some wetter than average conditions.

“At this stage, the drivers that lead to rainfall aren’t that strong so the outlook for the start of 2025 is a little bit vague,” he said.