“Nature seems to know more than the Bureau of Meteorology,” she said.

Mrs Kiehne said her and her husband Ron had noticed many black cockatoos and a lot of ants around building big nests. But she said the main reason why they think a large amount of rain is on its way is that the exotic plant Puya berteroniana (Turquoise Puya) is flowering and the only other time it has flowered was six years ago just before the flooding of the Mann River and Jackadgery.

Puya berteroniana comes from the mountains of Chile. It was planted at Cool Climate Garden Centre in 2000. When it flowers it grows to about a metre in height and 30cm in diameter and feels plastic to touch with a velvet fur.

“We don’t know whether it is flowering because it knows rain is coming. Whether it is a co-incidence that the last time it flowered there was big rain we don’t know we are just surmising why it is flowering now,” Mrs Kiehne said.

Yesterday the bureau forecast moderate rain today and tomorrow, with isolated showers and thunderstorms.

Up until 9am yesterday Glen Innes had received only 3mm for the month with only five days of the month remaining. The long term monthly average for October is 79mm.