As you might have guessed from the 3 months between posts, I've been keeping pretty busy (not the good kind of busy unfortunately).
The reason for this post is the recent visit to Kin Kin from ex-cyclone Debbie. Kin Kin has been suffering through one of our worst ever droughts recently, so we were very excited at the prospect of finally receiving some rain. After a lot of teasing the skies finally opened up properly last Thursday and we had our first flood in a long time.
As the rain started to ease off we walked down to our big dam, and were amazed to see the water roaring 1.5m deep through the spillway which had been bone dry just the day before. There had been so much rain that streams were rushing down the side of the ridge where i had never seen water before. In hindsight that isn't surprising, as our block received approximately 37 MILLION litres of water that day! Over the entire Wahpunga Creek catchment it would have been around 2 BILLION litres!
The reason for this post is the recent visit to Kin Kin from ex-cyclone Debbie. Kin Kin has been suffering through one of our worst ever droughts recently, so we were very excited at the prospect of finally receiving some rain. After a lot of teasing the skies finally opened up properly last Thursday and we had our first flood in a long time.
As the rain started to ease off we walked down to our big dam, and were amazed to see the water roaring 1.5m deep through the spillway which had been bone dry just the day before. There had been so much rain that streams were rushing down the side of the ridge where i had never seen water before. In hindsight that isn't surprising, as our block received approximately 37 MILLION litres of water that day! Over the entire Wahpunga Creek catchment it would have been around 2 BILLION litres!
There was still plenty of rain coming down, and plenty getting into my camera (as evidenced above). By the time i had reached the head of our valley my faithful Fujifilm had suffered enough, and expired. Unsurprisingly, there was not a lot of wildlife around, with the exception of one soggy echidna.
After hot showers all round and some food it was time to hop in the car and check out the bridge at the end of the road. Slight hiccup there though, as the road was cut only 200m from our driveway, a kilometre short of the bridge. Not being silly enough to risk driving through a flood (especially with Winter in the car), I turned back and swapped to a mountain bike.
At the site of the last photo the water was nearly up to the fork crown, but as it was slow moving water it was still easy to keep pedalling through. There was no way i could get any further though, as there was a stretch of particularly deep water in the way, and the bridge itself was about 4 metres underwater.
The next day Wahpunga Creek had subsided so we headed out to check on the rest of the district. It had been a big flood, though nowhere near the level of the horrendous 2009 flood.
This time around Kin Kin Creek peaked at 5m, in the photo above it would have been around 7 or 8m (the flood gauge was only belatedly installed after an elderly woman died in the 09 flood).
Most of the signs were "normal" for a big flood, but one decidedly unusual sight was a failed dam wall near the sawmill.
Most of the signs were "normal" for a big flood, but one decidedly unusual sight was a failed dam wall near the sawmill.
The top of that wall used to be a driveway, so it's anyone's guess what those poor sods will be doing to get in and out of their house for the near future.
For all the trouble it's caused, at least no people or animals were hurt (that i've heard of), and it has at least made a big dent in the drought. Whether the drought is broken or not depends on follow up rain in the next month or two, but we're certainly looking a heck of a lot better heading into the dry season.
Fair Winds,
LDR.