Bureau of Meteorology climatologist Jonathan Pollock said places like Mortlake and Cape Nelson, which only had records going back 20-30 years, were expected to have their driest springs.

The average spring rainfall for much of the south-west is between 200-300 millimetres but Warrnambool until 9am Monday had just 94mm, Camperdown 94.5mm, Port Fairy 88.6mm while Portland had 95.6mm. Hamilton, which has a spring average of between 100-200mm, received 72.2mm until 9am on Monday.

Woolsthorpe grazier Russell Selway said his farm’s spring average was about 140mm but it had received only about 22mm until a few days ago. The dry conditions had forced him to sell off stock early but beef and lamb prices were good, he said.

However, he said his 53 hectare (130 acres) summer crop of rape was “barely up.”