G-G's visit 'invaluable' experience for Bourke
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The Governor-General's two-day visit to Bourke has been described as "an invaluable" experience for the shire.
Quentin Bryce arrived in the town on Sunday on the first leg of a 10-day tour of the Murray-Darling Basin.
She heads to Broken Hill this morning.
The general manager of the Bourke council, Geoff Wise, says the shire will benefit from the visit.
"I think it's been invaluable to have a person of her status in our national community being in a rural community such as Bourke, getting a first-hand appreciation and staying long enough for reinforcement," he said.
"So often important people blow in and blow out and form quick impressions."
But Mr Wise says wild storms did force some minor adjustments to be made to the Governor-General's schedule.
"The change of plans included her requesting to go and see the school that's been badly damaged by the storm and also the swimming pool where the shade sail over the pool is now in the pool," he said.
"She went out of her way to see the harm that happened during the same period she was here."
The State Emergency Service says it expects a clean-up mission to begin today at the Koinonia Christian Academy.
A wall at the school and section of roof fell down during the storm.
The Bureau of Meteorology says Bourke has probably received well over 30 millimetres of rain in the past two days.
An official measurement cannot be obtained because the thunderstorm on Sunday night knocked out its rain gauge.
Some land-holders in north Bourke have reported receiving 75mm of rain.
However, Tony Thompson a farmer who received 10mm, says this was not evenly spread across the area.
"There may be areas outside of Bourke that have received some really good falls," he said.
"But most [farmers] that I've talked to haven't had anything like that isolated storm that I heard about at north Bourke."
