Hope Harmsey is doing OK ... http://www.news.com.au/national/thousan ... 5979694261

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My Brother is working fast to get everything as high and dry as possible, the water is rising and seeping in from his nieghbours yard as I type this.
It is a terrible situation and alot of people are going to loose alot.

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Harmsey is far from ok. Spoke to him yesterday and he said that he wasnt sure the rum would last until the water goes down. Then found out the Bundy distillery might have their vats tainted and could affect production for up to 4 months.

Yep when I spoke to him a few days ago he was worried about his rum supply and to a lesser amount about having no fuel for the car LOL

Fuel is ok. He found a servo with Diesel so the Prado has 180l.

Hi Fellas

I think the authorities got caught with their pants down a bit in Emerald.

The dam had been full for a while and flooded. Then upstream got 6 - 12 inches dumped in it overnight and all of it simply ran off quickly into the dam.

At one stage the dam was holding back 2,000,000 megalitres (175% of capacity).

Most of the houses that went under were the same ones as last time plus some more nearby.

Because of the mining boom, council had to release land for housing and some of it was sus. I think that the lessons of 1954 had been forgotten due to the Fairbairn dam being subsequently built.

I was in Emerald in 1954 as a kid and the big flood then came up to 1 metre below the railway bridge.

The area where the shopping centre was built was 8 ft underwater. Surprise surprise it went under again this time and last time. Distressing for the people caught up in it. U can't buy flood insurance in those areas.


The media is beating this thing up in Rocky. Sure the river is high at 9 metres.

There are no shortages. Fuel is ok. Essentials ok. Having the northern (and last remaining) access cut-off would be a bit of a worry.

I know where young Harmsworth's parents are and if he's still living there he'll be ok.

I'm 80 metres above the bridge level so I'm ok.

Contrary to what a lot of the media is trumpeting, I don't expect it to go over 9.1 metres. Not the 9.4 they are rabitting on about.

These are the same media people who last flood were predicting that the Gavial Ck wharves would be underwater at 8 metres and no vessels would be able to shelter there.

Problem was that the Gavial Ck wharves had been pul;led down before the 2nd world war.

The clean-up will be a little messy.

we'll survive ok

regards
Ronj

Good to hear all is well Ron. Or at least, not as bad as it could be. The Weather Bureau was predicting 9.4m on the website last night, that is where the media would get their figures from.

I am curious if the flood will rejuvenate the river. In the NT a river flood is good news, a welcome part of a natural cycle. But when the Fitzroy floods now it encompass a load of grazing land (which I assume much is wetland or floodplain), maybe some agricultural land (dunno), and of course with much of the town awash, all sorts of cr.p would be going in the floodwater. Will be interesting to see how it all unfolds for the environment.

Tragic hard work for those whose houses have been flooded, it would be heartbreaking cleaning up, but knowing it could all happen again in a month would do your head in.

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Hey Matt

The media attend the Local Counter Disaster Meetings held daily. They play the major role of keeping the community informed. Radio plays the major role with print being a day late and TV later in the day or special bulletins. These days of networking, tv is less informative.

However, ABC radio would be the best source of info but the worst at attempting to create news rather than simply reporting it. The mayor he is the chairman of the committee and the worst communicator. Since council amalagamations, we've been stuck with this fella. He is a bureaucrat not a community leader. He waffles on and on and on when asked a question. So much so that by the time he's finished waffling, he (and everybody else) has forgotten what the question was.

Top marks for effort as he's doing his best but zero for effectiveness.

BOM started using cautious terms like ''' ...9m .... possibly up to 9.4 metres depending of timing of river peaks upstream". That became soimply " BOM predicts 9.4m" in the hands of the media.

Big floodplain on south side of river. Mainly cattle and associated crops. Flood good for river. With the daming of the river locally by barrage for fresh water, tidal flows were restricted and silting occurs rapidly. Rocky is approx 45km from river mouth.

Huge mangrove maze in the delta mouth. One mangrove island is 94km in circumference. Few just under that. Perfect nursery as well as many lagoons on floodplain.

Near the mouth is a deepwater port (port Alma with 15 metre deep swing basin) which is on Raglan Ck feeding into Fitzroy. Raglan Ck is about 800m wide. Fitzroy is 1 km or more wide at mouth and 10km where it meets top of Curtis Island.

Big, big system downstream and a big catchment (second to Murray-Darling in Aus) upstream.

No more land on south side due to flooding unless u go about 10km out to higher ground around Gracemere ( Rocky's satellite suburb).. Highway built up about 3 metres immediately on souhern exit but its under too.

High currents will scour river out. Be good for 4-5 years. Get rid of mud buildup. All prawns been flushed out about 10km and good fish catches reported out there. Barra being caught on livies under floaters in floodwaters in town in local creek.

regards
Ron

Can't keep good fishos down

Just read about all the pineapples stacked up out that way waiting for transport. $4m worth apparently. Just saying to the missus yesterday we should buy them more often for the kids.

Fished down Port Alma and The Narrows in 2002, could see the potential. Some mighty barra in black and white pix on the tackle shop wall. Had a good look at the Fitzroy catchment on the satmap the other day, a huge system. Burdekin is mighty too, funny how it is just a sand bed under the main bridge much of the time.

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Pineapples down on coast. Can't be trucked or railed.

Apparently a barge is being organised to transport to Gladstone and then trucked.

Barra are heading up onto floodplain now. They'll keep coming populating the lagoons and as the waters drop the stragglers will become lost in the grass.

Then its a simple matter to walk the floodplain and pick them up. Found a dead 1.5 metre barra like that last time. Mostly they're about the 70 - 85cm size with about 10 on each side of the gully for every 20m that you walk.

Aside from the tragic impact of this wet season in qld.....it's nice to see nature doing what it does best and giving all those waterways a good clean out but imagine the cr.p getting flushed out onto the Great Barrier Reef plus I see they've given permission to the qld mines to pump excess water straight into the flood waters to get things moving asap....they are assuming that the volume of water will negate any toxicity of the waste water

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2 x Sydney Harbour volume per day is flowing under the bridge at the moment.

River still at peak of 9.15m and flowing at about 8 knots.

A cow from a property just upstream from Rocky was found "cow paddling" (alive) just off North Keppel Island. A distance of 86km by water.

Got a photo here somewhere of the fellas at Bluefin Marine flicking lures from outside the front door of the tackle shop. I'll dig it out.

regards
Ronj

yep well said ronje. it a bl..dy media beat up. cant work out how anyone in rocky "lost everthing" we had a heap of notice to get out. the only houses that went under are the ones that go under in every flood??? havent got insurance becuase no one will give it to em for good reason. can believe the amount of people who left their car at home and let em go under!! only had to move up the street in some cases condamine and other places out west have had it a lot worse then us.

have had a few reports of large barra in and around the streets mostly dead, but in the long run i think this will be good for the fishery.

and ronje jr harmsey is still living with mum and probably will for ever but he does have a house in park ave and had to evacuate the tennants. water came up the the 3rd step but we moved everything of value just waiting for the clean up to begin.

good news i was told the rum supplies are fine and the distillary will recover without loss of production

weather acually pretty good atm, been trying to get out wide but the odd rouge storm is keeping us at bay. when a storm hit off the coast here it can get dangerous very quickly

Harmsey

Good on ya lads trying to make the best of a bad situation is the only way to go .Dont wory about the uninsured Harmsey the taxpayer will look after them

See attached for making the best of a bad lot.

Local tackle shop. they were running a crab pot out the front for a while but changed to lures upon seeing some bait flicking around