20 August, 2012

Many drops make a flood...

Once again the river is up and as usual the Google searches have begun. That being the case, I thought I'd better get some photos up of the latest flood event - such as it is. Over Friday night and into Saturday, in the vicinity of 70mm of rain fell in the upper reaches of the Barwon catchment. In other circumstances this may not have had much of an impact, but after a wet winter and with the ground already saturated, any rain was going to raise the river height.
And rise it did. Rickett's Marsh on the upper Barwon quickly reached moderate flood level, the Batesford gauge on the Moorabool peaked at the minor flood level and by Sunday night the usual sections of the path around Barwon through Geelong were going under.
Barwon through Geelong, 5:30pm Sunday, 19th August, 2012
Barwon through Geelong, 9am Monday, 20th August, 2012
Matters continued to develop overnight. The Rickett's Marsh gauge fell but Geelong continued to rise and is currently (8:30pm Monday) at a peak around the minor flood level.
As usual when the river floods, I didn't have time today to do more than whip around the same old inner-suburban locations, so below are a few shots from various points:
Old Breakwater Bridge, 9am Monday
Hmmm...perhaps they'll wash away and solve the problem..., 1pm Monday
Looking at Queen's Park from Windmill Reserve, 1:30pm

Bunyip Pool or Whirlpool?
Rock detail at the Bunyip Pool
Next time I will hopefully make it further afield.
I did also attempt to upload a video or two of the water flow to give some idea of the volume and the noise, however Blogger didn't want to oblige. Another aspect it can't convey is the smell of a flood. At the Bunyip Pool where the water is aerated, the smell of muddy water is quite marked. When the water recedes, I know from experience that the paths will all smell of mud...but that is something for next week...



1 comment:

  1. Wow - didn't realize it could "flood" so much in 1 weekend, specially the marked elm/ash trees!

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