Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 Here's a few photos that took this morning from a few places where I could get to the Mersey & Dasher Rivers. One dairy farmer who I know very well had 300 dairy cows swept from his property early this morning when the river rose well above what was predicted. He had moved them to higher ground too, but in the end it just wasn't high enough. I was hard seeing them struggling in the flooded water, with most of them not making it. I did see several that had made it out, these were scattered in several paddocks some two kilometers down stream. I reckon he may have lost at least 250 head though which was a shame. It's something I hope not to see again at all, very distressing that's for sure. We were cut off at both ends of Sheffield early this morning from farm dams over flowing big time. A few roads and bridges were also washed away, 216 mms of rain in 9 hours. I have put a few photos of the same areas to compare the difference from normal river flow to major flooding. From this .. Dasher River. To this.. Dasher River on a normal day.. Dasher River today.. To think I normally wade up through here, but usually when it's 3.0 meters lower. The Dasher on another normal day.. Much different today.. The Mersey River at Merseylea, this was taken early August, the river is still a meter or so higher than normal.. The same area today.. The new bridge well under water, the last bridge was washed away three years ago when they said it was a 100 yr flood, they're saying the same again today.. Does this mean we get a 100 yr flood every three yrs now??? This road is where I go and fish above the old wooden bridge at Merseylea.. can't get near it today. I zoomed in to where the bridge is supposed to be and spotted two survivors which was good to see, they should be okay where they are hopefully. Note the bridge handrail on the RHS, that's all what's above the water.. Wattle tree down on the bridge over the Dasher River.. Pump shed under water as is the farm house on the RHS just out of picture, the owner was with me and I didn't want to take a photo while he was there. He was very distressed, poor bugger has had this property on the market for three years now, will be tough selling it after this.. Mersey River spills into farmland, crops all under water. Tom_Fishin, Tinker, bjorn2fish and 11 others 14 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
keenfisho 1,416 Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 Don't know what to say apart from WOW. Hope everyone is ok Those pictures really tell a story Tinker, Meppstas and snapper15.4kg 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
archerfish 685 Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 Meppstas I think your pic's say it all - the "before" and "after" shots in particular really put things into perspective. Cheers af snapper15.4kg and Meppstas 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 I heard one of the dairy farmers on the radio this morning and he said that they've recovered around 100 of the 300 dairy cows now. Also they have found quite a few more in paddocks further downstream but not sure who they belong to until they are scanned. Another farmer lost 50 beef cattle as well. all up I think there were some 500 dairy cows & cattle swept away. Won't really know the full amount of loss as most areas are still inaccessible. The photo of the two cows where the bridge is under water, well that bridge is now gone. The problem with the dairy cows that are stranded is that they haven't been milked for two days now, not only that there's no power & the milking sheds are still under water. Vets are being called in to see what can be done with them now. They may have to dry the milking cows out. There's something like 150 roads closed across the state at the moment and several bridges washed away as well, I'm glad that I have taken photos of the old wooden road bridges over my time in the rivers. The river has dropped a little from yesterday too which is good. I'm going to check it out again later this morning. cheers Adrian BarneyB, Chief, Tinker and 2 others 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
O2Catch1 170 Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 WOW!!! snapper15.4kg 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lofty64 1,309 Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 That is unreal.....a pity to all farmers who lost stock...just goes to show how powerful water is in volume.....great shots ....and I bet you will have to travel to the other side of the island to catch your trout ...when the season is open . Meppstas, snapper15.4kg and BarneyB 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 7, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 Season opens on the 6th August, will be a tough season too as I'm sure this flood will have wiped out quite a lot of the fish stocks in the rivers.. Larger fish will probably survive but the smaller ones will get washed away.. just have to wait and see I suppose.. Here's few photos from this morning when I went back to see how much the river had dropped overnight, good to see it was down by a couple of meters. Merseylea bridge half gone.. Road damage near the bridge. A lone survivor makes it's way back to the dairy.. All green again.. Still plenty coming down.. Land ahoy at last as the river level drops.. lofty64, snapper15.4kg, BarneyB and 3 others 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
snapper15.4kg 67 Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 Thanks for the pictures to keep us up to date with the situation in Tassie, Adrian. It must be tugging at your heart strings, to see the damage and knowing that many fish have been washed away. I hope that Tassie can soon get back to something as close to normal as is possible. For you, Adrian, I hope you soon find a big trout that wasn't washed away but is just waiting for you to come along. All the best to you and Tassie from Alan. Tinker, BarneyB, lofty64 and 1 other 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BarneyB 1,939 Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 With the amount of water around you may need to invest in one of these? lofty64, snapper15.4kg, Tinker and 1 other 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 Thanks guys, the good thing is that we haven't had any more rain since and the river levels (in our area) have dropped very quickly which happens with the shorter rivers. So that's a good thing for all concerned. I'll head back again later today to check both the Mersey & Dasher rivers out too see how much more they've dropped. Launceston further to the East is coping the floods now as the Sth Esk river peaks, it one of the longest rivers here I Tassie and it's taken quite some time to reach there. Several small towns ( Perth & Longford) along it have all been flooded over the past few days as it peaked on it's way down to the Tamar Valley Gorge & Estuary. There's around 4,000 homes & businesses at risk at this stage.. Good thing is that it's hitting the estuary on a low tide.. May be a problem when the tide starts to run in, high tide is at 3.00pm. cheers Adrian Tinker, BarneyB and snapper15.4kg 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheBerg 241 Posted June 8, 2016 Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 The power of nature once again testing the human resolve to just keep on going. So much devastation from the one thing that we need to live and ironically sort of brings all of us together here on the forum. Hopefully the worst is done and the damage is less then estimated. Stay safe out there while your taking photos mate. BarneyB, Meppstas, Tinker and 1 other 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tinker 1,645 Posted June 8, 2016 Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 Mother Nature can be a fickle bitch at times.... Stay safe mate. I have many relatives living along the coast in NSW, things have not been easy. My heart goes out to those who have lost their lives, homes, belongings, pets, not to mention the livestock you saw being swept away, and elsewhere. And I know this will have quite an impact on the fish stocks in your local streams and rivers, I really hope they recover quickly Adrian, fingers and toes crossed. snapper15.4kg, BarneyB and Meppstas 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
archerfish 685 Posted June 8, 2016 Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 An interesting occurrence as a result of the Tassie floods: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/08/flood-hit-spiders-stake-claim-to-higher-ground-in-mass-ballooning-australia Cheers af snapper15.4kg and BarneyB 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 Headed off back to the Mersey River again this afternoon, checked out Merseylea, Kimberley & also Weegena. Weegena is some 20 kms further up from Kimberley. Once i was within three kilometers of Weegena there was a road closed sign on the road. Still enough room to one side to drive through as the locals still had to get through & so did I. I drove down to within 700 meters of the bridge, didn't want to go down too far as there was a lot of mud etc down the bottom end. Use the zoom lens on the camera. Looks to me that this wooden bridge has also been washed away from what I could see. From where i had parked one can normally see the white guard rails on the bride. I could only spot a small section of them on the LHS, nothing on the right, that ute was on the opposite side of the river. It's the second time this bridge has been washed away, the last one went in the 1970 floods. When i was at Kimberley I noticed that the railway line had been washed away as well, that's going to take a while to replace, I could also see the main structure over the river had collapsed as well. good thing is that the river has dropped by some 10 feet, there is more rain forecast over the next few days but nowhere what we've just experienced.. Here's a few more pic's from today... First close up at Weegena, the river would have to risen by at least 20 ft to flood through the paddocks & across the road... Zoom shot from 700 meters. Looking back towards Kimberley & Merseylea on way back from Weegena. Railway line washed out at Kimberley, no freight for a while now.. Looking downstream from the bridge at Kimberley.. Upstream from the Kimberley bridge.. River level has receded to what it was.. Flood damage, bridge at Merseylea. River level has dropped.. BarneyB, snapper15.4kg and bjorn2fish 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 This was where I took the top two photos of Weegena from.. quite some distance from the river.. But you can see how far inland the water spread.. snapper15.4kg and BarneyB 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 Here's Lake Cethana spilling over, it's 20kms from Sheffield, flows down into Lake Barrington... This is nothing to the water that's going over the Trevallyn Dam at Launceston then into Cataract Gorge. They said on the radio this morning that there was 2,300 tons of water going over the dam wall every one second.. Now that's a lot of water.. cheers Adrian BarneyB, bjorn2fish and snapper15.4kg 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 Here's Trevallyn Dam spilling over today followed by Cataract Gorge then the Tamar River... 2,300 tons of water per second going over the dam wall... Great day for white water kayaking or rafting in a rubber ducky... Not a good day for the boaties.. cheers Adrian bjorn2fish, snapper15.4kg and BarneyB 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2016 I just found out that 5 of 8 bridges on the Mersey River have been washed away, one more may also have gone too and that's the wooden bridge up at Liena. It was under water the other day but can't get access to the area at the moment due to severe road damage. The Hoggs Bridge which was below the wooden Merseylea Bridge was a solid concrete bridge too.. Most of my access areas to the Mersey River have been washed out.. going to be a very tough trout season ahead that's for sure.. This is what Hoggs Bridge looked like early this year.. cheers Adrian BarneyB and snapper15.4kg 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 9, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2016 The Kentish Council (Sheffield) Lord Mayor (an ex- Sth Aussie) Don Thwaites was on ABC radio this morning and said the costs will be in the millions, each of the Mersey River bridges will cost around a million dollars to replace for starters then there the roads etc..that need repairing & replacing. There's also small bridges that have been washed away on the Dasher & Minnow rivers too.. will take 12 months to replace all these bridges I reckon. Hope there's no more floods for some time either, thing is we're just into the start of Winter too so nothing will get done to replacing them during this time. The pollies will promise the world with the elections not that far off I suppose.. they're all full of pi#* & wind too.. BarneyB and snapper15.4kg 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 9, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2016 Here's the timber bridges that are no gone for ever, will more than likely be replaced with concrete ones I would think.. Glad I've taken photos of them too, always good to look back on. Merseylea bridge at Merseylea. Barretts Bridge, Meander River. Lower Beaulah Bridge, Minnow River.. Dylans Bridge, Mersey River at Weegena. Liena Bridge, Mersey River at Liena. Taylors Flats Bridge, Leven River at Loongana. Union Bridge, Mersey River at Mole Creek. cheers Adrian snapper15.4kg, archerfish and BarneyB 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
archerfish 685 Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 Well that worked well, then... http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-10/cloud-seeding-carried-out-over-tasmanian-catchment-before-floods/7499226 Cheers af Tinker and Meppstas 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 10, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 Hydro Tasmania is run by a pack of idiots, this isn't the first time it's happened either. As for Mr Groom the so called Energy Minister, well he's no better either as he's got a lot to answer for too over the running of Hydro Tasmania.. It costs $100,000 each time they cloud seed an area.. snapper15.4kg, Tinker and BarneyB 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2016 Good news, one of the wooden bridges as reported by the ABC that was said to have had been washed away is still standing.. I went for a drive this morning and drove around the road closed sign and continued on for 8 kms to find the bridge still there across the Mersey River. It was the Union Bridge near Mole Creek that was reported to have been washed away. I must admit it must have been very close to going after seeing how much damage there was to the river bank on both sides of the river. The water had flowed over the bridge as the bitumen surface had been washed from the bridge. I reckon they will assess how bad the damage to the bridge is once the river drops to a safe level so it can be inspected more closely.. The river was so high the it took a shortcut across the paddocks that were once full of hardwood plantations. Here's a few pic's from there today.. cheers Adrian Looking downstream from the middle of the bridge.. A lot of the river bank is gone as the river flooded across the paddocks. Good to see at least there's one of the wooden bridges left, for now any way.. Nokia, BarneyB, Tinker and 1 other 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nokia 39 Posted June 13, 2016 Report Share Posted June 13, 2016 Unreal. Meppstas 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2016 Finally we've had a few nice days of sun and only a light breeze, here's the scene at Merseylea at week later, great to see the river levels a lot lower too, Now it's the big cleanup... Hard to believe that the water was right back to those trees in the distance.. Here's the other half of the Merseylea Bridge.. And here's the other half that's still standing.. cheers Adrian snapper15.4kg and BarneyB 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted June 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2016 Headed on over to Weegena where another bridge has been washed away on the Mersey River, a lot of damage here as well and it's going to take some time to fix this lot too.. Where Dylan's Bridge once stood.. What's left of it today.. Looking across the river to see another section of the bridge against the river bank.. River banks severely damaged by flood waters.. Massive washout well inland and around 6 meters above the normal river level.. Flood debris some 7 meters above the river.. And more flood debris.. Good thing was I did spot a nice solid brown in the shallows on the road to recovery.. Same fish, was that tired it didn't even dart off when I got so close to it.. I even managed to put my hand under it & rubbed it's belly.. cheers Adrian BarneyB and snapper15.4kg 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted July 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 Here's a before & after photo, Mersey River at Kimberley.. BarneyB and snapper15.4kg 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ludaqryz 290 Posted July 2, 2016 Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 Perfect time to hit the banks and washouts with a Minelab detector. Could have uncovered a few nuggets in the rite areas. snapper15.4kg, Meppstas and BarneyB 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Meppstas 4,966 Posted July 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2016 River rose again by around 2 feet yesterday after 40mms of rain, ground is so saturated it's just running into the rivers.. Mersey River has started to spill into paddocks again at Merseylea.. Mersey River spilling into paddocks again.. snapper15.4kg 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.