Ark Building Weather

Adam dries off:

Canberra has been deluged in the last couple of weeks. Surrounding places such as Queanbeyan and Wagga are all suffering from severe floods. Here in Canberra, we'd already had a fairly wet spring, receiving just over 400mm (16 inches) of rain for Sep, Oct and Nov. Then "Summer" hit. As of Friday, we have received 228mm (9 inches) of rain so far in the first 10 days of December. 476mm (19 inches) of rain has fallen in the last 58 days.

All this rain is causing problems. Our underhouse storage and pantry all sit directly on rock. The sheer volume of moisture has meant that all of these rooms have water that's come through - we'll need to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't flood, and that nothing more gets water damaged. Our water tank became full months ago, and the overflow has been gouging canals in our garden - at least it's looking very green. The grass is struggling though - after years of not enough rain, now it's constantly been covered in pools of water.

Just down the road from us is Point Hut Crossing - a bridge that heads out to the Brindabella Ranges. This crossing is normally wide but fairly placid water. It's recently been closed for several days on end. In the nearly 6 years we've been in Canberra, I hadn't heard of it being closed before until these deluges. I went down to check it out earlier last week and found the water 1.5m above the bridge. Numerous trees had been uprooted and carried down by the flood waters and were stuck against the bridges. Into the maelstrom, a group of foolhardy kayakers were heading off whilst kids were playing in the mud. I heard on the news that 4 kayakers had to be rescued from this river later that day - wonder if it was the ones I saw.

On Thursday we took the kids down to see it after another deluge. This time the water was almost 2 metres above the bridge, and looks to have been even higher over night. The trees and debris had been cleared from the bridge after the previous deluge, however there was still debris in the trees and the river was now much wider and stronger.

The deluge has been taking it's toll on the wildlife as well. There are wombat burrows near the river, and there was a dead wombat nearby on Thursday morning. I've seen 4 dead tortoises on the roads near  neighbouring waterways in the last week - I haven't ever seen a tortoise in Canberra before.

Last night I went down to Scrivener Dam - the dam on the Molongolo River that creates Lake Burley-Griffin, the main lake in Canberra. Due to drought conditions over the last decade, Canberra had been under water restrictions, with road signs constantly by the side of the road advising water usage targets and telling us how full our dams are (they got down to below 40% from  memory). Well, the signs all say 100.0% full now, and the dams are wildly overflowing. Scrivener Dam was mazing last night - 3 flood gates had been opened and millions of litres of muddy brown water were gushing out - it looked like a giant chocolate fondue. What made it even more amazing was the debris coming over the dam walls - much of it wood and trees. And by trees I mean 40-50 foot long eucalypts and major trees, not small saplings. These trees would fall over the dam wall, and then bobble around in the foaming "churn" at the base of the dam wall. The trees would rise and sink in the bubbling waters, often smashing back into the falling water where the crushing weight would smash the trees up into pieces.  Large crowds gathered to watch the excitement and big oohs and aahs would occur whenever a large tree would tumble over the walls. Deep cracking sounds would echo around the dam as the trees were splintered up by the force of the churning water.

As the evening progressed it descended into a beautiful sunset across the clouds. The beautiful colours reflected of the foam-free areas of the massive river created by the runoff.

We took the kids out to see the Dam and the accompanying maelstrom after school today. The water had dropped significantly, and most of the debris had gone, but there were still many sights to see.