Darling river in flood

Fabulous news Fred - thks for the link. Have never been in those places but they're on the 'must do' list!

Cheers.

Duncs - Hickey Falls ( or Devils Waterhole as known to us as local) comes out the eastern side of the mountains and would not flow into the old Castlereagh river until near Binnaway.

The Castlereagh starts in the northern part of the mountains and flows north to Coonabarabran, then east, south and west to Coonamble.

It will take some time for the water to get to Coonamble - but in 1955 when the river had its last big flood - Coona got big rains and when the water was at Gilgandra they then got heavy rains which caused the flood.


A J

Any idea how much might get out of the other end if all these Lakes are currently dry?

Don't know the area but I recall it being reported that a heap of water ended up in the lakes after the floods in Qld last year but none going past into the system. Who uses it or does it just evaporate?

Kevin J

Kevin, as I said, the Lake Menindee has been bone dry for around 7 years.

There has been inflows into Lake Weatherall and Lake Pamarmaroo over the last few years, but it has been released gradually on projected figures of more water coming down the river. Unfortunately, some of those projections have not eventuated. The water either soaks in to the dry ground, or it is grabbed before it gets to the Menindee system.

Have a look at the records of the river levels at Wilcannia over the last 7 years and you will see that it has been zero, or less than .5 of a metre for most of that time.

Sure, there is evaporation, the Menindee system is only around 7 - 8 metres deep, about the same depth as some of the weirs around St.George that we saw a few months ago.
You would think the sun evaporates the same amount of water in most of inland Australia due to the fact we haven't got any deep valleys to store water, only comparatively shallow depressions.
It's a very flat land we live in.
I am told our evaporation rate is about 1.8 metres a year, so if you don't top up your swimming pool regularly, it will all evaporate in one year.
By the way, I don't have a pool.

Dave

This article suggests 300 billion litres will go into the Menindee Lakes system
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/rains-will-flood-economy-with-money/story-e6frg6nf-1225815371086

It sounds like a lot :-)

Dave,

Beardmore Dam in St George was 8.95m from full on the 28th of Dec 09 as of this morning it is now 1.29m from full capacity. It is expected to be full in the next day or so.

Jack Taylor weir is currentyly 2.95m below max capacity and is expected to be full in the next 24 - 48 hours when Sunwater release water from Beardmore dam.

There is some good water flowing to the north of Surat but South of us here in Chinchilla, in the Condamine river. From what I can gather the wide spread rain has filled all the holes between Surat and St George so hopefully with a bit more rain, water should make it to the Border by the end of the month.

The MacIntyre River in Goondiwindi is also flowing well, not sure if it has made it to Mungindi yet.

The Moonie river is rising slowly around Nindigully and there has been some good rain around Tara in the past 48 hours (70 - 80mm) so this water should flow through in a week or so.

I doubt your favourite Cotton property will harvest water as they do not have the financial assets to do it ;)

Cheers Kev

Chisel, that really does sound like a lot, but they don't know how much the dry ground will soak up first, so it is an unknown factor how much will come downstream.
The Warrego and Paroo are also flowing, but again how much and for how long.

Kev, that's great news for all those up that way, it should stop a bit of dust blowing through the house for a while. At he very least it should get some feed up for the summer.

Dave

Thanks to you all for the feedback - much appreciated
My only problem now is when to throw the Shippshape onto the top of the cruiser and get up there for a look and capture it all with some video/pics.
At my age another 7+ years might be to late !!!
Cheers 2 U all
Mike

Dave,lets know when the wier goes over and " I`ll come-a-runnin wiff me rod `n` a bukkit ov worms " :-)

Scrubby