AN UNHOLY row has erupted over who has the higher authority when it comes to making it rain - God or the governor-general.

Warwick Marsh, who led a recent pray-for-rain pilgrimage along the Murray, was more than a little miffed that Australia's new Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, was given the credit when the heavens did open up.

Ms Bryce's trip to outback NSW two weeks ago came just after Mr Marsh's Australian Heart Ministries' two-day pray pilgrimage from Wentworth to Wodonga. Mr Marsh and Pastor Peter Walker went down on bended knee with members of local communities along the Murray to pray for rain.

When 75mm of rain fell in Bourke on the night of Ms Bryce's visit, a Bourke Shire spokesman said: "You can't go too much higher than the Governor-General to thank."

Well not so, according to Mr Marsh who said there was no higher authority than God when it came to precipitation.