Then and Now (or 90 Feet of Water).

When I posted this image from 2008 (as my piccie of the day) I did not mean to cause confusion.

Eastern Oz is not in drought at the moment.

Back in November, I posted these images of Gough’s Bay on Lake Eildon, Victoria to show what it was like in 2009

And what it was like2011.

That is the thing about Oz, as a rule our environment lurches from extremes of drought to literally flooding rain. We will have years of drought followed by floods and then back again with often only short periods of “normal” rainfall in between

For city folk life tends to go on in either case. The people who live in the bush adjust to the changes as they come. They have seen it before they will see it again. In my lifetime I have seen numerous cycles like this.
As to our wildlife, everything seems to cope. Birds and land animals breed like crazy in the good years. Even fish survive. In many cases rivers that have stopped flowing will be full of fish days or weeks after they flow again. How is a bit of a mystery to our scientists, but happen it does.

To finish, the best example I can show of  just how different things are now is of a place from not far from here.
This image (not one of mine) is of the Bonnie Doon road bridge over an arm of lake Eildon as it was in 2009, still at the height of the drought.

Credit

  This is what it is like now

 Eildon is around 30 metres (over 90 feet) deeper. The change took less than 12 months.

Drought in Oz, Piccie of The day

Eastern Oz has for the past two years been wet, very wet. 
But before that we had been in drought that had lasted 10 – 15 years (depending on where in the country you talk about, Oz is a big place).
Lake Eucumbene is in the Australian Alps in NSW and is normally big enough to be worth keeping a sailing boat there.

When I was last there in 2008 it was a very different story; this boat was left high and dry by the receding lake, nearly two miles from where the water was then.


The normal shoreline is at the foot of the trees in the distance. What was left of the lake was out of frame to the right (nearly two miles away)

The Lake that Came Home

Almost exactly 18 months ago I posted about one of my weekend trips.

I was talking about the impact of more than a decade of drought on Lake Eildon in the Central Highlands of Victoria.

Well if there is one thing certain about the Aussie climate it is that a period of drought will end in periods of flooding rain.

I went back to Eildon yesterday and the contrast couldn’t be greater.

Gough’s bay in 2010Almost the same angle in 2011The southern shore in 2010And in 2011.And a close up to emphasize the difference.
The lake is over 25 metres (82 feet) deeper!

On the Subject of Snakes

Last Weekend we stayed close to home, only venturing up the Yarra Valley to Warburton (again) and a little past there to the Upper Yarra Reservoir.
This photo shows the dam wall and spillway. Due to prolonged drought I believe there has been no water on this spillway for over a decade.Melbourne’s water supply, of which this reservoir forms part, is down to 31 %. Although the Upper Yarra is at about 68% capacity.
As you can see from this photo, of the bridge over the spillway, the bulk of the dam wall is constructed using rock-fill.This surface is fairly unstable and the Melbourne Water Authority has erected signs warning yahoos to keep off.However yahoos and galahs are aptly named and I suspect the aforesaid signs were not doing their job.
Hence (I suspect) these signs.
I really think these signs are a case of; if you can’t get people to be sensible then scare them into complying.

What am I implying?
That there are no snakes living in the rock fill of the walls?

Not a bit of it. In fact knowing more than average about Aussie snakes, I would guarantee there are a good number of snakes taking advantage of the habitat and shelter provided by the rock fill.
There are snakes pretty much everywhere in Oz. Including, sometimes, in the absolute centre of our capital cities.

In fact as I have said before getting bitten by snakes is pretty much a national pastime.
But I also guarantee the danger people face on this rock wall is broken bones and not snakebites. I suspect people would be as likely to come across a snake in their back garden as they would be on this rock wall.
Why?

Simple, as much as people hate and fear snakes, snakes fear us a whole lot more. We are big and dangerous to them and they nearly always try to avoid confrontation. So on ground like this the most you are ever likely to see is a snake’s tail disappearing into a crack as it hightails (sorry I just couldn’t resist that pun).

The interesting thing about snake bites in Oz is that well over 80% occur on young males as they either attempt to catch, or more likely kill snakes with inappropriate gear such as sticks.
So the moral of the story is leave them alone and they will leave you alone.

What I suspect has happened here is that a clever chief ranger is trying to protect people from their own stupidity. It could just backfire, as those same yahoos who might think it fun to climb down these rocks are just as likely to think it fun to try and find a snake to kill.

I think my sympathy is with the snakes in that contest.

By the way I am being a good boy, I did a couple of hours on the manuscript last night.