While the wet weekend is a long way from the drought-breaker that Griffith has been praying for, after the wettest March day in more than a decade, the hopes of farmers have been bolstered.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology from Friday through to Monday a total of more than 61mm of rain had fallen. The weekend got off to a damp start on Friday when 2.6mm of rain fell, Saturday then delivered 14.2mm, Sunday another 10mm and Monday the record-breaking 34.4mm.

It's the timing of the rain that has farmers grinning most, with many on the verge of planting winter crops.

CSIRO Griffith senior technical officer David Smith said the deluge was "promising".

"It just goes to show that it can still rain," he said.

"We are a long way off saying that the drought is broken or breaking, but it is encouraging.

"It is the first time in over seven years that our rainfall to date (January to March) has been in front of the long term average.

"Most people would be pretty happy at the moment, particularly the cereal growers.

"But as usual, we need to keep receiving rain for it to be of any use."

Greg Bonetti, who with his three brothers Mark, Simon and Kristian will harvest their 360 hectares of rice in around three weeks, said the weekend's downpour was a glimmer of hope for farmers.

"This late in the season it hasn't done much for the rice, it's mainly beneficial for next year's wheat crops, but in terms of confidence it's great," Greg said. "We'd like to see more rain in the dams, because that's where our allocations come from."