WHETHER in backyards in town or on-farm, rain gauges widen the eyes and put a smile on faces when there's H2O inside.
And there were many smiles around the Eugowra district on Thursday and Friday when gauges measured up to 53 millimetres.
Lachlan Noble, who farms Sunnyside just out of town with his father, Alan, and families, said 25mm at home and 47mm measured on their other property nearer to town was enough to now set them up for winter.
"It's been a long time since we've had an autumn start like this," Lachan said.
"We would have been happy with half-an-inch the other night, but what we got sort of sets us up for winter now."
The Nobles reckoned they were already lucky enough to have their sheep grazing on Bennett dual-purpose wheat and Yarran oats.
"We sowed 200ha of Bennett and 110ha of Yarran from mid-March to early April, plus 200ha of barley, 70ha canola and 89ha of suntop wheat," he said.
They join 1100 Merino ewes to White Suffolk rams for a first-cross self-replacing ewe flock with the crossbred ewes also joined to homebred White Suffolk rams as a new venture.
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a likely chance of an above average rainfall this winter and similarly from July to September.
Highest rain recording this week was 139mm at Byron Bay in the Northern Rivers region while 56mm was tops in the Illawarra at Robertson while Moss Vale picked up 54mm.
The Mid North Coast received good falls from 51mm at Coffs Harbour, 29mm at Dorrigo, 25mm at Taree down to 17mm at Mt Seaview on the Hastings catchment.
While Eugowra gained 53mm nearby in the Central West Slopes and Plains Manildra picked up 22mm and Cowra just 14mm while Tuena topped at 36mm, Bathurst 34mm, Oberon 30mm and Orange 25mm.
In the Northern Tablelands Inverell received 50mm, Glen Innes 31mm and Armidale 29mm, and Warialda 22mm and Moree 19mm in the Northwest Slopes and Plains.
Goulburn received 20mm and Talaga 20mm in the Southern Tablelands and 20mm was recorded at Tenmora on the Southwest Slopes.
Top in the Riverina was 20mm at Mulawa and 17mm at Deniliquin while White Cliffs topped the Upper Western region at 12mm.
The forecast in the Central West for the week ending Friday May 29 is mostly sunny with medium daytime temperatures up to 18 degrees Celsius.