Australia Weather News

Several days of rain in far west New South Wales is threatening one of Australia's largest outback music festivals.

Organisers of the Mundi Mundi Bash, roughly 40 kilometres north-west of Broken Hill, are deciding whether to go ahead with the event. 

The wet weather has hampered the roll-in of vehicles over the past few days, with some lining up overnight to enter the grounds. 

Wilangee Road, used to access the festival, is now closed to all vehicles except four-wheel-drives. 

Monique McGrath is attending her first Mundi Mundi Bash with a group of 14 friends, who have travelled from Dubbo, Illawarra and Port Macquarie.

She said they began lining up to enter the festival site at about 1pm yesterday, but were not granted access until this morning.

"It was very slow … we camped in the line-up," Ms McGrath said.

"I took photos [of the line-up of caravans] and it just went for miles and miles and miles."

She said the conditions had been less than favourable.

"Very muddy, the rain last night was absolutely horrendous," Ms McGrath said.

"We've actually got one of our crew members bogged at the moment, so we're just waiting on a recovery vehicle to come out and pull these guys out."

Mary and Graham travelled from Adelaide with a group of six caravans to attend Mundi, and reported lining up for more than four hours.

"All the roadways, which [when] we were here two years ago were lovely and dry, are [now] just muddy messes," Mary said.

"We managed to all get in and none of us got bogged, but people around us are bogged.

"[Some people] had to camp on the roadways, within the camp, but there's also people [who] camped on the external roadway because they shut the gates and had nowhere to go.

"This morning, they're all moving quite slowly."

For Lincoln Dalla Santa from Mildura, who has attended every Mundi Bash, the crazy weather is simply part of the outback experience.

"[The weather] doesn't really faze me, whether it's muddy, whether it's hot, it doesn't matter, it's just part of what it is," Mr Dalla Santa said.

"You wouldn't have an outback festival if it wasn't [braving] the elements.

"What nature dishes out, we just gotta live with that."

Organisers have said they will provide an update at 2pm today.

More rain on the way

A total of 11.6 millimetres of rain was recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology at the Broken Hill Airport over Monday and Tuesday.

Forecasts from the bureau show more rain and a possible storm is on the cards for the region tonight and tomorrow.

Senior meteorologist Angus Hines said the rain was quite uncommon for winter in the region.

"[It is] pretty dry normally at this time of year as we push through the cooler months," he said.

"The average in Broken Hill for August rainfall is about 18 millimetres, but we've had already two pretty solid dumps of rain just in the past couple of weeks, which have well and truly exceeded that monthly average."

Mr Hines said the wet weather system was not done yet, with more showers and possible storms expected overnight and tomorrow.

"If the storms do get going then we could see some locally moderate, or even heavy rainfall with those storms directly overhead," he said.

Thunderstorms would bring the lion's share of the rain, but even if they do not occur, wet weather is guaranteed.

"We could really see anything from a couple of millimetres tonight, perhaps 2, 3 or 5mm, or if we get some heavier showers and storms moving through, we might well see something like 10 or 15mm," Mr Hines said