It has been more than two years since the entirety of New South Wales was plunged into drought.
Now, after widespread rain and multiple floods, the NSW Department of Primary Industries says the state is officially drought-free.
"That's off the back of sustained rainfall and a strong recovery occurring over a couple of years," the department's Anthony Clark said.
But it has not been an evenly spread recovery, with parts of the far south-west and east receiving less rain than elsewhere.
"We've had some regions that have been really lagging in terms of recovery," Mr Clark said.
"If farmers out there aren't saying that that reflects their conditions on the ground, we're aware of that too."
'Pretty gun-shy'
Gus Whyte, who has a property between Wentworth and Broken Hill, says he is not convinced the drought has ended in his area.
"Most people in our region are pretty gun-shy to say this drought is over, because it started somewhere about 2017 and we're five years in and it's been very, very dry," he said.
Until a month ago Mr Whyte had recorded about 10 millimetres of rain on his property since the beginning of the year, but more than 80 millimetres has fallen in the last few weeks.
"It looks like a lawn — it is bright green, a veneer of green right around the countryside," he said.
He said a lot more sustained rain was needed to pull the district out of drought.
"I'd like to see three consecutive months where we had greater than average rainfall," he said.
Struggle continues
The state's recovery has had some setbacks in the past two years.
In early 2021 more than 96 per cent of the state was considered to be out of drought.
That slipped to 86 per cent in August 2021 before gradually rising again.
"It is really only a snapshot in time," Tambar Springs farmer Xavier Martin said.
The vice-president of the NSW Farmers' Association said the figure was pleasing, but it would take a lot longer for businesses to bounce back.
"I appreciate that recent rains have turned that around but that doesn't mean farm business recovery in that short a time either," Mr Martin said.
The flip side of the end of drought is the major flooding that has repeatedly hit the state's far north-east and parts of the Central West in late 2021.
Mr Martin said crop and livestock losses would run into the billions of dollars.
"It's most difficult for people when there are sub-profitable years of drought and then you move very rapidly into sub-profitable years of flooding, potentially with a bushfire thrown in between," he said.
