Kununurra & Tanami

Hi Joe n Mel n Kids

We could well do without the kind of rain that we experienced in Kununurra, I was driving and could not see the white lines on the road, even the windscreen wipers working full speed could not keep sufficient water off the windscreen to drive safely.

The conditions were nothing short of too dangerous to drive in.

Cheers

Hi marc, it seems strange to have the real "wild" storms this early, the one last Sun was massive winds and really driving rain, Escott stn had something like 120mm of rain, only a week before that a storm went past the Gregory crossing and trees were down everyware, some 6 inch accross and green and snapped off at the base, that is some real strong wings there .....
I kind of dread the cyclones this year, we will either get some really bad ones or just some really big lows and heaps of rain, dont know why but i think it is gunna be the lows and rain this year ...... all the way down the middle and flood the Murrey, you watch, they think the lakes are full now and rivers are running, they dont call "flood plains" that for nothing, the silt that made the good soils came from very big floods and one day it will happen again..
Old man on Maningrida used to tell me storys about how they had to walk inland for miles, right up to the hills to avoid the storm surges from big waves and flooding, he showed me the "rocks" that could NEVER be moved or we would get the big waters ...... (of course a bit more to the story)
We had the eye of a cat 5 pass 12klms from us (Monica) and the storm surge was bad but it is bigger than that he said .....
i hope nobody has moved them this year eh
Cheers

Hi Joe n Mel n Kids

I am not looking forward to the cyclone season either, but Lake Gregory desperately needs the water, and the bores supplying the community need higher levels in the tables, so not matter what happens, we should hopefully benefit.

It was Cyclone Rosita that belted us, the outer edge of that particular cyclone gaave us 380mm of rain in about 6 hours, and yes, the entire community was flooded. Made for an interesting couple of weeks, but we got through it, relatively unscathed.

I live and do some work in Mulan, but most of my work is done in Kununurra, so I frequently drive back and forth. Driving in the mud does become a bit tedious sometimes, but I am gaining a bit of experience at doing it and can get through.

Cheers

I believe they are still going to be living there.... just not trading.....you may get a cuppa if you introduce yourself there

Hi Tony

It has been my pleasure to know Bruce and Jacqui personally for many years now, and before that my father-in-law knew Bruce and worked with Bruce as a stockman around Billiluna for many years.

I have not heard that they will be stopping there, but I will contact Bruce and find that out, as they are family friends. Thankyou for that information.

Cheers

Hi Min

I am sorry that my latest post was not such a "wonderful picture", with all the rain and horrid driving conditions, but I am firmly committed to making sure that I give people information as accurate as possible. This sometimes may be to my detriment (there are those opposed to anything I post), but I will never intentionally mislead anyone.

If we do however, get a huge wet, as looks like happening, the Kimberley will display all its' glory during the early tro middle half of next year. I will of course go insane with my camera and get what photo's I can, and drop them in a blog.

I am not a Botanist, Orinthologist or Naturalist, so I will have to simply get what photo's I can and allow others to iodentify whatever is there.

Cheers

I had quite a conversation with Bruce a few months ago as we passed through. He said he will be staying and doing the weather observations but not operating the roadhouse any more.

Found out he's ex-Nth Dandalup and we had a good yak about the changes in the Peel District. Nice bloke.

Sorry, a few typos in that last message. Wish there was an edit function.

Hi Nick

I had actually forgotten about that post, thankyou for the reminder.

We have already copped about 25mm in the last 90 minutes, as one heck of a storm is currently right over us. It is starting to ease off as Iam typing this, but I have just lost all tv reception from the sat dish (Foxtel), and we have no commercial channels (free to air), so a DVD night for the grandkids it will be.

I am now sure it is a result of the current change from 'el nino' to 'la nina', and at some stage I will work out exactly how that affects things. The only weird thing is now the rain and storms are coming in from the SSW, as opposed to NNW for the normal direction they come from.

Don't worry about typo's, the last time I worried about that was when I was doing my uni assignments, and then I was thankful for spell checkers and grammar checkers. These days I am not concerned.

You have a great week.

Cheers