It’s been at least 15 years since Dubbo farmer Noel Mawbey sowed any crops in February, but last week the Corbie Sheep Stud manager planted a crop of oats on the back of the best rain the region has seen this early in years.

Mr Mawbey was “pretty confident” about the way the season was looking and said the amount of sub-soil moisture was impressive.

“I’ve never seen this much grass growing at this time of year,” he said.

“It’s looking better than the last few years.”

After sowing oats last week, Mr Mawbey will move onto grazing wheat this week.

Each year, he has to wait for rain to plant anything.

“Sometimes it’s been June before I could sow,” he said.

“Sowing this early gives plants an opportunity to grow before it gets cold.”

Landmark agronomist Chris Turner said it was the “best start that’s been around for a long time”.

“Normally it doesn’t rain this much,” he said.

“We were very lucky ... It’s certainly set it up for a big year. If we get average rainfall now, it should be right.”

But both Mr Turner and Mr Mawbey stressed the importance of follow-up spring rain.

“The last couple of years hasn’t been good,” Mr Turner said.

“Things are looking good now but it’s got a long way to go. We had not a bad start last year but it didn’t last.”

However, Mr Turner said people in the region were “more optimistic” than they had been in the past.

As the rain fell yesterday morning, about 130 volunteers gathered to register for Clean Up Australia Day in the city.

Dubbo City Council’s community participation facilitator Kathleen Oke said the timing “probably wasn’t spot on” but she was very impressed that so many people turned out on such a “dreary day”.

“The volunteers spread out at reserves, entrances into the town and along the riverbank,” she said.

Ms Oke was expecting more than the 150 volunteers who turned out last year, but because of the rain, 130 was good.

“It was nice weather last year,” she said.

One family, the Avila’s, have been volunteering in Dubbo on Clean Up Australia Day in rain, hail or shine for the past 13 years, Ms Oke said.

And they were there in force yesterday.

“They haven’t missed a year since I’ve been organising it,” Ms Oke said.

It seemed like a heavy downpour yesterday morning, but it only reached 6.4mm by 3pm, on a day when up to 40mm was predicted.

There is still a chance of rain during the remainder of the week, but it will be in the vicinity of 1 to 5mm.