North Queensland rain/floods

[XRchic]

Isnt Australia the land of extremes? NSW, Vic and SA are so dry (WA too?) but up north, there are floods in the tropics!

Great pics guys!

[LUXO_8]

Originally Posted by XRchic

Isnt Australia the land of extremes? NSW, Vic and SA are so dry (WA too?) but up north, there are floods in the tropics!

Great pics guys!

if only there could be a happy medium heh......


should build a pipeline between the north and south........open the floodgates to our dried up resevoirs......lol

[AC/DC]

The fact that our Dam holds 36% and is currently full is a complete disgrace, and certain directors and board members of NQ Water need to be held accountable for their incompetence in getting a task completed more than twice as long as it was supposed to take.

They spent 6 months whinging about the job simply so they could get personal media appearances, and now the rain is here, suprise suprise, the dam is not finished.

But becuase they are all mates with the Local Government, nothing will be said.

Its simply not good enough, and the gates in the dam wall should of, and could of been finished in the 3rd quarter of 2006. then they could have finished the rest later... But of the 219000 million litres it should hold, , it only holds 36%.

AC/DC

[rodderz]

You'd think it would be common sense of them to have the dam completed knowing that summer is the wet season, therefore filling with water!

Even with the damage floods cause, it would be a great sight to see

[XRchic]

I think I have mentioned before, my Dad is a civil and environmental engineer specialising in hydrology. 10 years ago he made recommendations to certain govt depts along the east coast states that they should increase the sizes of their reservoirs because this exact thing could happen. None of them listened. He reckons that there would not be such significant water restrictions in Vic and NSW if they had had adequate water storage from the start...

He is working 6 days a week, 14 hours a day at the moment!!!

[DanXR6T]

Also a lot of storage dams were constructed in the 1960's/70's, which is now recognised as being a period of unusually high rainfall. So most of these dams were constructed based on incorrect long term rainfall forecasts and generally the number of flood days to fill said dams never occurs!

And as for a pipeline from Nth Qld to southern states? It's really only got to reach upper Central Qld, because all below that is Murray/Darling Catchment... however to pump the water down there would need to be a ULTRA/MEGA dam to hold it in the meantime, and currently these do not exist...

Dan..

[northey]

They also made an observation platform for the public - it's now 1.5 metres under water. Good one troops.

I sincerely hope they don't harness our water and pipe it south. Those capital city folk who don't practice water conservation need to learn it like we have.

It's already proven that the rivers need floods to wash out all the rubbish/silt that builds over time. If they're not sure how much damage irrigation does to a river the Murray should have been the lesson. But I don't think our pollies are going to take any notice of that one.

Forgot about those wonderfully entertaining dickheads who every year drive their cars into water you wouldn't put a bulldozer into. Duhh, yup, it's only up to the top of the dashboard and flowing at 30 knots. We'll be right.

[DanXR6T]

Originally Posted by northey

I sincerely hope they don't harness our water and pipe it south. Those capital city folk who don't practice water conservation need to learn it like we have.

I don't have a problem with EXCESS environmental flow heading south, but as I stated earlier you also need a place to store this excess water, which means MEGA dams close to the coast with massive pumping potential. Funnily enough people don't like their houses being reclaimed for dams...

And yes, city people should be on permanent water restrictions - do you want green lawns or domestically grown food to eat? Clearly you can't have both in a drought. But we could import all our food from China... heavy metals and pesticides much?

Originally Posted by northey

If they're not sure how much damage irrigation does to a river the Murray should have been the lesson. But I don't think our pollies are going to take any notice of that one.

I disagree, POORLY managed water licensing does that to a catchment system. Systems with the correct allowances for environmental flows still function perfectly, the Baron River in Nth Qld is a good example.

The Murray Irrigation area is a shocker, which is clear with rising watertables and surface salinity problems... These soils and areas where never designed to handle this much water! 20,000+ years of environmental change has shaped these soils, and in 150 years some of them are stuffed from over irrigation and over production.

[rodderz]

Trouble is most places have dams that were designed 50+ years ago with that population and some expansion in mind. These days it cant cope with the amount of water that is used with a huge increase in population and industry that require the use of it, especially in dryer years.

Governments should of been thinking about it 25 years ago, forecasting that if they're prepared to improve infrastructure such as roads to cater for population increases, that a necessity like water would also be improved.

Maybe they thought that such a cost involved in building new storages in the billions of dollars would mean that people would complain about how much money they were spending at times when it wasnt needed 25 yrs ago.

[AC/DC]

Well someone thought ahead, and decided to build the burdekin dam, , which is , I think 9 times the size of sydney harbour. They said they would never fill it in 1000 years, and after the first "big" wet season, it was 3m over the spillway.

I have seen it about 1m over the spillway, , the dam wall itself is about 190k from townsville, , but the dam catchment itself you cant really see...

AC/DC

[jeffb]

Originally Posted by northey

Jeffb, Is that the hospital bridge in 2nd last pic?

Yes it is, apparently it survived, I have not seen it since the water went down, they are supposed to be checking it today to see if they can re-open it for tomorrow.

[Armageddon Designs]

That is insane! We where hoping for a bit of rain before we left as we hadn't had a good wet season for a while. We leave and then this happens! The last time I saw aplins weir like that was when we had those small floods late in 1998 and when Cyclone Tessi Side swiped us in 2000. I actually have some photo's of a kyaker in there after Tessi. Looks insane guys, hope you are all staying safe.

[EvilChief]

Originally Posted by MADNC_8

if only there could be a happy medium heh......


should build a pipeline between the north and south........open the floodgates to our dried up resevoirs......lol

the problem is TSV doesnt actually get all that much rain, i have been living here for nearly 8 years and apart from the very very few cyclones that came through (i think twice) we had maybe once this amount of rain ...

its not like that it ALWAYS rains in the tropics

[northey]

I lived in north all my life and last 40 yrs in tville. When I was a kid we used to get a wet season most years but very little after that. Unfortunately we miss out on a lot of wet seasons nowadays. It can be years between them now.

I've crossed the mighty Burdekin a few hours out back of Ingham near Wairuna station and the Burdekin river there is two creeks about 5 metres wide.

[Armageddon Designs]

I was told by a friend up there that the Burdekin River, near Macrossan, is right up under the bridge! (I believe it is about 20M from bridge to river bed) When we left in late December it was barely wet.

[Dazza XLT]

I just saw some footage of the Burdekin River from the Bruce Hwy Bridge. Looked bloody high!

[naddis01]

Originally Posted by Darran

I just saw some footage of the Burdekin River from the Bruce Hwy Bridge. Looked bloody high!

And the bridge is also over 1km wide, so you can imagine the water going down it at the moment.

[HWY666]

the mine i work at is about 2hrs west of Mackay,they got 600mm of rain,another mine i was at a few weeks ago,near Emerald,received 1250mm!!!!

[rodderz]

Originally Posted by HWY666

the mine i work at is about 2hrs west of Mackay,they got 600mm of rain,another mine i was at a few weeks ago,near Emerald,received 1250mm!!!!

I'de imagine if they were open cut mines they'd currently be a lake several metres deep.... would that render it unusable for a few weeks or is it a case of pumping it out and it being usable once dry enough for machinery?

[HWY666]

yeah,the mine im at,the water table is actually higher then the bottom of the pit,soon as it rains,she fills up!They pump them dry, then let the pits dry out for a few days.Even on the haul roads,with the cruiser in 4x4,its impossible to keep it on the road(good fun tho,when noones around lol)they have had a few instances of landslides,they lost an 8million dollar digger and 5million dollar D11 dozer when the high wall collapsed,from 6 days of rain!All they got off the digger was the bucket and the arm on it,dozer is under the ground sumwhere now,buried still

[Jock260]

wow i didnt think there were that many north queenslanders here, especially townsville people.

[Patrol351]

Originally Posted by Jock260

wow i didnt think there were that many north queenslanders here, especially townsville people.

im sure theres plenty of townsville people on here

[Armageddon Designs]

Originally Posted by Jock260

wow i didnt think there were that many north queenslanders here, especially townsville people.

There is at least one ex-Townsvillian on here that I know of!! LOL!!!

[dan.76]

hwy666 what mine near emerald ? sounds like lot to me . i am 80km east of emerald didnt think we got that much rain

[bessxg]

Well, it's all gone now. Here comes the barra.

[Interceptor]

Originally Posted by dan.76

hwy666 what mine near emerald ? sounds like lot to me . i am 80km east of emerald didnt think we got that much rain

i'd like to know which mine too..... i'm in the emerald area, and the most we've gotten in the last 5 weeks would be pushing 300mm

[normxb]

It's ironic this country of ours , being so big and having both extremes .

These photo's were taken Saturday (27th) last week at Harden (near Yass NSW)

I missed taking one when it was windy , the wife was following another car & had to slow down because the other car "disappeared" in the dust , we were only doing 80 kph & you could hardly see the road .

This one is just a bare paddock.


Next 2 are just dust haze



Hope Townsville dries out a little , my eldest daughter is due to fly in on the 15th (I think) Her first holiday in 5 years . least she'll get to see some of that "green stuff" lol.

[S3SR]

Originally Posted by normxb

we were only doing 80 kph & you could hardly see the road

haha we only do 20kph and cant see the road, theres that much rain

innisfail is worse half the year so its not new

[Mechan1k]

Originally Posted by EFDream

Please send it to sydney!

Long range forecast is meant to be flooding rain for Western NSW and Sydney metro.

I am still holding my breath for that one ... my dams need filling. It's bloody dry here.

[Patrol351]

BURDEKIN DAM 3.2M over the spill way