Lake Eyre SA

Lake Eyre begins filling

Try that

Dunno how often this gets updated. One day old at the moment.

http://www.lakeeyreyc.com/Status/latest.html

Hi Neil

Do not get your hopes up too high as there is just not enough rain.
Yes there is the local run off from the local rains, but it will take a far more than that to fill the lake.

Do your research to find out how Lake Eyre fills, and it is not from local rain, but from floodwaters in central Queensland.

Have a great trip when you head off, and make sure you carry extra water, as it will be extremely hot out there in late January. Do yourself a life insurance favour and have either a HF radio or Sat phone.

Only last week 2 ladies broke down north of William Creek and walked during the night to get help from William Creek. If they walked during the day, they would have died, as we (South Australia) has just had our hottest December on record and up that way it has reached 47 already and we have not even reached our hottest months yet.

Cheers
Stephen

Neil
Its funny how when you asked a question about How quickly lake Eyre fills after rain and a forum member gives you a safety run down on the dangers of solo travel in the Summer months.
talk about transgressing from the original question.
Your reply was very diplomatic .

Cheers

Neil,

The rains of the last 24 hours in western Qld might help a bit but there is a lot of dry country along the flow to soak it up. There is a fair time lag between flooding rains and arrival in the lake though. Worth watching the weather patterns over the next few days in Qld and western NSW. You might just have picked it right with your itinerary. Unfortunately any water that does hit will evaporate quickly because it is shallow, salty and the environment is hotter than hell. I saw it 5 or 6 years ago when the Cooper was in flood. It was brilliant although the bird life had dissipated by the time we got there. It was still around 70% filled.
Hope it all works in your favour mate you sound like a passionate bushy.

Ken

Well, the yachties updated their site yesterday again. So maybe it's time to scrape the barnacles off your trailer sailer.

The latest is heavy rain in most of the Eyre catchment with 600 mm depth in Eyre South. I assume that the rate of evaporation is ferocious but there'll also be serious replenishment.

I recently read Madigan's account of his travel down the east side when the Diamantina was in flood. Some camels it seems cope fine with sinking past their fetlocks in the mud and others don't. Bit like humans really.

While the media have reported wide spread rain throughout Qld, Neil, there's no chance the lake will fill from this current change. Rain has been too patchy, and not on a widen enough scale to saturate the Lake Eyre catchment.

The Georgina, Diamantina and Barcoo Rivers are running, but am quite sure there's been very little flow in the Thomson. There needs to be a"team effort" from all these streams, if we're going to see the lake fill this year. There's a lot of big cracks to fill on the way to the Warburton Groove!

After you visit at the end of the month, I'd suggest you plan on a return visit, in at least 3 months time, to check it again.

Bob

Rock found in L Eyre that's older than the earth -
click

Well all I can say right now is get yourself the weekend Australian because you might be in for a good trip it's just getting about that you might be a bit of a burden.if it says closed do us all a favour and don't got there.