beautiful rain isn't it

I said to the people in the hotel at Finschhafen last year. They looked at me and I could see their thinking - it's just rain; if anything, it's a nuisance! But out west in NSW, steady soaking rain is known as beautiful. I think in the last week we have had more than what would be the annual rainfall for places like Bourke and possibly even Moree. 300mm is Bourke's average annual rainfall. The raingauge is an essential farming tool but it makes no sense to measure rain here. What would you do with the knowledge that you had 40 mm last night and 70 the night before? In some areas it might be used to predict flood heights I suppose.