A WEEK of freak storms has delivered spectacular rainfall across vast areas of southeast Australia.

Totals of 116mm at Benalla, 110mm at Rushworth and 107mm at Murchison are just a sample of what has been a godsend for many districts.

Some of the other good falls include 102mm at Ballarat, 101mm at Mangalore, 94mm at Bendigo, 92mm at Albury, and 86mm at Kyabram.

However, Horsham's rainfall was only of 21mm, while its neighbour Longerenong had 52mm.

The Western District largely missed the big falls, with Hamilton's weekly total rainfall just 16mm and Gippsland also received falls on the lower side, with Bairnsdale receiving 26mm in seven days.

But in the Victoria's North East and Upper Murray, weekend rainfall averaging 50mm had farmers staking claim to an early autumn break.

After good falls in January and February, most producers are planning to sow grazing cereals this week.

For Tooma wool grower Susie Mitchell, the 56mm "was a bit of a nuisance" while recovering from the December bushfires.

"We have a fencing team coming today so it is going to be a bit wet," she said.

Ken Heal measured 88mm on his Nagambie farm coming on top of 150mm since January.

"It feels good, I'm smiling, Mr Heal said.

Murchison dairy farmer Glenn Tivendell said the 110mm he received at the weekend meant prospects were "a whole lot better than they have been for the past couple of years".

About 110mm on the weekend led to minor flooding of the Murrumbidgee River near Wagga Wagga, a sight not seen in that town for years.

Further west in the Riverina, falls were patchy, depending on where the storms landed, with 125mm in Deniliquin, 81mm in Hillston and 78mm in Coleambally some of the highlights.

The storms also caused serious damage to some horticultural crops.

David and Jo-Anne McKenzie, of Tynong North, lost their entire 16ha crop of pears and apples to jagged clusters of hailstones just three days before harvest.

Mrs McKenzie said the crop would still have to be picked and they would try to salvage what they could.

It was the fourth year in a row that hail storms had struck their orchard, but they could not afford to put up hail nets, she said.