I do feel sorry for the parts of Queensland that do not get a good rainfall if any, and may the Heavens open up for you all and us, and heave down over the next few months.

But here in Brissie in the City of Logan we pay very dearly for our water at 81cents a KL for every drop, how lucky you are to get 700kls of water per annum free before you start paying for it. I am on a 3/4 acre block and try to only water once a week, but that is very hard to do as the weather warms up in September and October and I often have to water twice weekly some of the garden beds when those winds come.

All my bath water goes in the ground, as does rinseing water but when it dosn't rain for five months even that does not help. We spend between $9-$10 a week on water, with two of us living here would you believe a bit more than what it cost to run my all electric house. But I like my Garden so I have to pay for it.

So far this year in my back yard we have had 955mm of rain and most of that we got Jan-March and from the end of Sept till now with no rain in between that is so much more than we have got in the last few years. Around our area NO ONE would even think of watering the lawn let alone footpaths. So I do hope that it does curb the habits of those water wasters up your way and everywhere.

Have a Happy Christmas Artie Cheers......MM.

same here MM, we dont get any free allowance anymore and have to pay for every bit of water we use. Artie, For the last 4-5 years we've gone into our dry summer with low dam levels, there arent too many lawns around anymore (apart from people with bores), and now the WA govt is looking into a desalination plant for sea water or getting water piped down from the north west to fill the dams. We also have problems with our electicity supply so I have no idea how they plan on running this desalination plant even if it did happen, its a sorry state of affairs. Lets hope 2005 brings lots of rain for everyone, just not all at once :)

g'day artview,

um yeh rocky can turn it on i was supervisor at the mail centre when xmas 90 to new year 91 delivered a flood that kept us isolated for around 3 weeks. actually around those 6 years i was up there from 89 to 95 rain fall was pretty good with floods in bundaberg and mackay as well to deal with plus emerald and west was cut off with floods out there at one stage, amde my job of getting mail through very difficult didn't temper the mood of customers thought hey?

but anyway as the year aint over yet hey lol? we have attained 1200mm ytd to mid december against 1040 last year and this december so far is running 100mm below last year.

gotta go storms coming and yes i reckon we all are in for a wet xmas of sorts maybe local flooding but looks good for good general falls.

more later when the year ends.

the best to one and all for the season and the new year.

len

yeh had to quick artview,

good little storm we got, but when rocky was flooded in at that time we were an island, isolated even from yeppoon. i remember getting ready to go to work for and afternoon shift and being just as wet after the shower and drying off as i was before. we where getting showers of between 2 and 6"s at a time now 6"s of monsoonal water is a lot of water.

depot hill was under water for weeks, food was getting short yet i still had to deal with a-holes who wanted their mail silly hey?

we had the etna creek prisoners helping ferry mail and necessisities across a 10 mile stretch of water between the golf course up near the old botanical gardens and somewhere near the mt morgan turn off on the highway, and to all concerned we never lost anything or anybody a top job to say the least.

there was a song in the top ten i think by an aussie singer something about the rain or can't stop the rain??? well everytime they played this song it poured hey, i think rocky people were on the verge of requesting the song never be played again.

enjoy the season

len

I suspect that I may have given the wrong impression re our 'free' water : every ratepayer is currently charged a flat fee ($223 per half-year, from memory) for water, but Council claims that this is at least $100 short of what we are using as a community every six months, and the shortfall is currently being picked up by business users. I vividly remember my water charge actually *dropped* when we moved to metered water in Ipswich, but I'm not so confident this time.

700Kl is the level at which Fitzroy Water will begin to penalise consumers, and that seems fair to me. See the link below for the official story.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fitzroy Water and New Charging System

I understand Artie that does sound a bit steep, but we also are charged a so called "Water service charge" every quarter as well. And yes I agree with you anyone useing that much water should pay dearly for it. But you know if it did rain and we used a lot less water the Council or Goverment would find some other way to get money from us...MM

"But you know if it did rain and we used a lot less water the Council or Goverment would find some other way to get money from us...MM"

misty morn I totally agree :) it sounds like youre in a similar situation to us, we get charged $500 a year and then we have to pay for water usage on top. I think most people over here have been very water wise over the last few years, but its very frustrating when our water corp is posting record profits, drought seems to be a nice little money spinner for the govt ;)

I cant argue that governments at all 3 levels work hard to raise revenue wherever they can, but that doesnt negate the fact that water is a finite resource. My ire is aroused not by council, but by the wasteful attitude of many of my neighbours : council is acting responsibly, IMO, and I only wish I could see the looks on certain faces when the rates bill arrives for the period Jun-Dec '05 .....

Melbourne has been getting quite good rainfall this summer. The current weather patterns are similar to the summer weather patterns I can remember when I was at high school (about 20 years ago), i.e. a series of hot days punctuated by summer storms.
But apparently it has made an insignificant impact on water storage levels. I suspect with Melbourne's current population/urban expansion, increase in water consumption will outstrip any improvement in annual rainfall.

this is our total for the year and very nice thank you.

1225mm
132 rain days
this december is behind last december by 72mm (128 - 200)
last year we got 1040mm total & 104 rain days

so no complaints from these little black ducks.

happy new year to all

len

Asked our 20 mins-north-of-Rocky neighbour for the 2004 rainfall and he responded:

January 123.75, February 78.5, March 72, April 11, May 0, June 6, July 0, August 10.5, September 7.75,October 33.25, November 26, December 100.75. Total 569.5, total rain days 52. Every fraction counts!

Presumably it was the 33.25 in October that rescued the dam from going completely dry. A dam which has approached dryness closely three times in 26 years.

I couldn't work out how to find a figure for Mackay from the BoM but, for this year, I have an empty chart stuck to the fridge. Here's hoping.

Good to see Len's recollections of the flood/s. Found a story by Phil Jarratt in The Bulletin of the 1991 flood while cleaning out the filing cabinet; I think I'll keep that piece of paper.

Rocky floods closely connect with the Connors and Funnel floods across the old Sarina-Marlborough highway which bring back a lot of memories. Spent two days on the southern bank of Funnel Creek Dec 1972 dodging the mossies etc and making campfire coffee. The nearby landholders were angels, providing meat and so forth, to the stranded on many occasions.

Cheers
Rose

Well now, I guess Gracemere had better have a bit of a say here.
We measure is points here so you just have to divide by four to get out rain in Mls.
One day the old guage will break and we wil just have to buy a new one !!!!!!

January 627 points, Feb.300, March 45, April 63. then nothing at all registered in May, Jun , July and August.
Sept.62, Oct.422. Nov.79 and December 465.
Making a total of 20 inches and 53 points.

Remember well the 1991 flood as well as quite a few others at least in 91 they had the raised railway and roundabout, used to be fun trying to get to Rocky from the south and West before that.
There is an amazing catchment for the Fitzroy River, from the north to the west and south west so it is nearly always full and the wonderful barrage keeps the salty tidal water out of the fresh water from the rivers up stream.
It is fun listening to the talk of Rockyites who are going onto water metres, it is almost as though they have had a large brown snake put in a box at their front gate. !!!!
Marion

g'day marion,

that flood at xmas time when i was in rocky covered that round-a-bout and the railway line as i remember, they where ferrying food etc across a 10 mile stretch of water from near the mt morgan turn off to a playing field on the north side somewhere, and this went on for a couple of weeks. the mail trucks had to be unloaded and all mail put into boats to ferry it across and prisoners where used to help.

that was a lot of water.

len

Yes Len, the 91 flood really was doozie.
They found out that the raised road held the water back because there were not enough drains to let the water through, some great engineering work or whatever !!!
We hadn't moved down here then but were cut off from Rocky for quite a while.
Clouds in the sky here today and the Storm Birds are driving us crazy, sure wish they could vary the sound they call, hopefully some more rain coming. The heat and humidity are high enough.

Marion

In Burringbar, just south of Murwillumbah, NSW.
we got 1995mm for the year.
A little up on average.
Cheers from Kris

g'day marion,

yes exactly badly designed rail and road acted as a dams, they should have opted for a big & i suppose expensive viaduct and a lot higher, signs of very bad planning in this modern ara when a city can be isolated for that lenght of time, and the silliest bit where the dump is on lakes creek road is the flood plain for the fitzroy river so they are going to condense the water even more, would hate to be people in depot hill nowadays, not to mention other areas. real weird when you drive along the highway after the flood subsided and see dead cattle 20 or so foot up in the trees in some paddocks.

yes very muggy here all night around 25c humidity 91% lots of cloud coming from the monsoonal area the monsoon trough is locked into the local low trough so certainly looks good for lots of water from above, mayb rocky should be prepared???

len

Len,

I'm sure you've noticed that real estate agents dont seem to have any qualms selling in flood-prone sections of Rocky, and these areas certainly arent limited to Depot Hill. There is a creek roughly 300 metres from my home in Frenchville which has, in previous years, left owners of its leafy surrounds under several feet of water. Many people have very short memories in Queensland, IMO.

The 'it wont happen to me' attitude isnt restricted to Rocky : debate rages on regarding the possiblity of another '100-year event' leaving the occupants of Brisbane's most expensive homes flood-bound, but many of them werent there in '74, and dont believe that it could ever happen again. Nature repeatedly makes fools of us all.

exactly,

realty the great floggers, and ppl who buy then try to pass there mistakes on though realty, yes we were in brissy in 74 it was all catchment flood created by reclamation of flood plains and swamps, and the reclamation has gone on lots of new sub's those concentration camp sorts you know where you have almost no land and the roofs nearly touch, those ones are all on raised flood land so the people around who have never been flooded are in doubt or should i say trouble? hey. brissy is ripe for another 74 and maybe with worse consequences.

and yes many hidden little places in rocky prone to severe flooding down the lower end of berserker st and lakes creek they even sold land with raised islands to build houses on down that way right on the fitzroy flood plain, but people are very naive and silly.

yup nature the great equaliser hey,wanna know how silly one might be try messing with nature i see it all the time.

len