Flooding, NSW: Plague of mice seen swimming down the street after wild weather

Video has emerged of mice swimming through floodwaters in New South Wales after huge swathes of the states were soaked with a once-in-a -century rain event. 

The footage, filmed on Wednesday at Garah near Moree in the state’s northeast, shows dozens of the rodents paddling across a submerged paddock towards higher ground. 

Parts of flood affected NSW have already been dealing with a mouse plague in recent weeks brought about by a good harvest season after years of drought. 

A video filmed on Wednesday shows the mice swimming through floodwaters (pictured) 

A 1,200km wide rain system made its way over the state in the last week dumping more than three months worth of rain over large areas of NSW and Queensland in a matter of days. 

‘Whilst enduring the current mouse plague in rural NSW, floodwaters were welcomed by many who were under the impression the rising water would decimate the plague numbers,’ the video was captioned.   

As the video shows, the mice can swim to dry land where their numbers can then regrow once the water recedes. 

Female mice can have up to ten pups every month-and-a-half. 

In early February, Ben Storer filmed a wave of the mice as he drove through through them in a ute on his family farm in Warren in central northern NSW. 

The video showed mice running in all directions, surrounding an empty grain shed and crawling over a surface drill.

Mr Storer’s wife Tanya said ‘everything is being affected’ by the mice plague, which hit their family farm after the last harvest in November 2020. 

‘They’re in the car eating up the car seat. I had to throw out my microwave, coffee maker and mixer because they get into everything.’ 

In early February, Ben Storer filmed the mice as he drove through the horde in a ute on his family farm in Warren in central northern NSW (pictured) 

The Storer family grows sorghum to sell and feed their cattle but mice have been eating it, which has ‘hugely’ hurt them financially. 

‘During harvest, there was not a huge amount around but they’re gradually building up and now it’s at a plague proportion,’ she said.

‘We planted a full sorghum crop and they’ve wiped that out. 

‘If the mice plague continues, we won’t be able to plant any kind of crop because they’ll just dig it out.’ 

After months of drought, Ms Storer said a mice plague was the last thing struggling farmers needed.