Australia Weather News

While a wet and stormy winter has many South Australians counting the days until summer, flooding at Langhorne Creek south of Adelaide has grape growers smiling.

Above-average rainfall means the Bremer River, which flows through Langhorne Creek and to Lake Alexandrina, has overflowed into vineyards.

Robbie Potts and his family have grown grapes on the flood plain for 165 years, and use levee banks and floodgates to irrigate their vines.

"Nothing beats a good flood with a good soaking," he said.

"The roots of the vines on the flood plain are probably down a metre or two in the soil and they are use to drawing from the floodwaters."

The Bleasdale Vineyards hold the water for a day or two to give time for plenty to soak into the soil then let it flow to a neighbour's property so they also benefit.

"It flows out naturally and soaks into the lovely rich soil and also deposits more silt there, which it brings down from the Adelaide Hills," Mr Potts explained.

"A little bit goes into the town and blocks the main street off for a day or two [but] the locals are pretty happy about it because they know the good it's doing."

Natural flood benefits vines

The vineyards experienced their last natural flooding three years ago.

"You can physically pump some water — but it does not do anywhere near the job that a natural flood does," Mr Potts said.

"We do have access to underground water and also pumping it back up from [Lake] Alexandrina, but it's obviously a lot easier to take it out of the river as it's flowing past.

"It's the best quality water and, technically, it's free."

After flood irrigation during the winter, the growers hope for a warm summer to reap the rewards from their irrigation method.

"Next spring when [vines] start shooting, they will have all of this moisture to draw on and they will love it, they will burst open and grow like mad for the first few months," Mr Potts said.

Adelaide has already gone past 400 millimetres of rainfall for 2016, making it wetter than for the whole of 2015.

During a stormy late autumn and the first part of winter, there has been plenty of rain and Adelaide is already beyond 100mm for this month.