flood blog

FLOODS

I suspect that the main reason this beautiful property was on the market for four years at a bargain price before I bought it was probably the floods. OK the drive is steep, making a four wheel drive vehicle a necessity and there is no mains power, but these are easily remedied by human investment of money and work. The floods however are a different story. No amount of human endeavour can stop mother nature when she decides to let rip.
 

About twice a year the heavens really open up and torrential rain turns the surrounding hills into waterfalls. All this water cascades into the river valleys and gentle streams transform into wild, convulsing giant snakes of brown water which spread out over the surrounding land. In a big flood, a stream barely ten feet wide in dry weather becomes a mighty force, two hundred feet across. Whole trees are tossed around as they swirl downstream, getting stuck momentarily, entangled on the overgrown banks, then being wrenched free by the power of the current and continuing on their journey towards the sea.

Most flood debris never reaches the sea, which is many miles away, it gets caught up on fences and other trees on the fertile farmland which covers the floodplain. It is sometimes deposited in the middle of paddocks which have become lakes, so when the floods subside there is usually a mess of tangled branches and weeds hanging on fences and sometimes huge logs smashed and split or lying whole, many yards from the river's normal course. Wire fences, which are usually almost invisible in the landscape, appear as solid with several feet of vegetation backed up behind them. Some have moved, collapsed, been partially buried or even disappeared from their original position, weighed down by debris and dragged along by the force of the moving water.

Although my house is built high above the floodline, the driveway descends steeply to the road which runs beside the river. So when the floods come the road is under water. My only option at these times is to wait for nature to finish doing her worst and enjoy a day at home. The floods rarely last more than a few hours or a day at most. It may be perverse but I actually get a big thrill from these displays of power by mother nature and often venture out to observe her at her most ferocious. I am reasonably careful to keep out of the way of danger, but danger is part of the excitement. Large trees howling, creaking and groaning, dancing wildly in the strong winds, and sometimes during these mad gyrations they can suddenly split and break or their roots can pull out from the soft waterlogged earth. So I have to keep my wits about me, my senses fully alive. And strangely I do feel fully alive in this weather and somehow at one with nature, with a sense of reverence and awe. I guess I must have pagan instincts.

But going back to the reality of life in the modern world, the other side is of practical survival, being able to go to the marketplace and buy and sell. As things stand at the moment everyone living in this area is dependent on the local council to keep the roads open. Unfortunately this road is probably one of the worst as far as maintenance is concerned because every time there is a sizable flood, sections of it near the end often wash out and need heavy machinery to repair. So we are all quite vulnerable really even if we strive to be as self-reliant as possible. Several people have lost cars to the floods, some while trying to drive the flooded road. If the council stopped repairing this charmingly scenic but dead end road some would be trapped down the end, or have to find another way out. Part of my rationale for keeping horses instead of cattle is for emergency transport in the case of a system failure by council, possibly due to bankruptcy. This idea may seem childish in this age of technology and may have no real practical use, especially since the horses are practically wild, but they were once a major form of transport and who knows...

The other problem with this road is how it is "repaired". Much of the money spent is futile and probably exacerbates the flooding. I say this as a resident who has watched convoys of trucks dumping thousands of tonnes of gravel on the freshly scraped road and then the next flood, sometimes only a day or two later, washing it all into the river. Every time the road is scraped back to hard clay the level is slightly lowered. The scrapings are dumped in unsightly rows along the river banks presumably as some sort of stop bank, which not only completely obscures the view of the river but only serves to channel the floodwater along the road. Large culverts which are first to let the water onto the road during a flood and then channel it, with all the gravel, out again, totally defeat the purpose of the ugly stopbanks. As a result of this system the river bottom has risen considerably, filled with gravel. Now, places that were once muddy-bottomed swimming holes are only ankle deep with a thick gravel base. I predict that if this is kept up for long enough the road will eventually become a river and the river a road. Clearing the river of years-old tree debris and roots and, of course, the gravel would probably go a long way to improve matters. But I'm not a road engineer so my opinion doesn't count. Sigh, I only live here.