The Drought

[kingtin]

Took the kids out yesterday for a run in the country, thought I would try and capture the drought in pictures. Just a few for you

kev

Wivenhoe

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/drought2_2.jpg



Wivenhoe

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/drought1.jpg


Wivenhoe


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/drought_3.jpg


A Car Meet At What Was Somerset


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/Drought_4.jpg


Cars Departing At Somerset


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/drought_5.jpg



Take Care When It Fills


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/drought_6.jpg



I found this little oasis, but some bugger had found it before me. I found 3 un-named set lines which had 30lb line and 4/0 hooks baited with some small fish that I didn't recognise. Probably trying for eels?


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/Portfolio/creek_3.jpg

[Reel Magic]

My word,
She is in a bad way,
Kev can you tell us when it is healthy, how far up that opposing cliff face is the water level?

Cheers Ryan.

[kingtin]

My word,
She is in a bad way,
Kev can you tell us when it is healthy, how far up that opposing cliff face is the water level?

Cheers Ryan.

Ryan, when I first visited it 12 yrs ago, it was filled to the tree line.

kev

[SWANY22]

VERY SCARY when you see pictures like that .you dont realise how bad it is until you see that.going to take a lot of water to make that look pretty again.
thanks for thoes photoes.

[sandbankmagnet]

interesting that that stream seemed to be running pretty well. It must be between the dams??

[disorderly]

Some nice photo's there kev.
Just remember that if you are showing the kid's "the country" and "the drought" that it extends a bit further than 80km's from "the city".
The impact of the drought has enormous ramifications on many country towns and their inhabitants the further west you go.In many cases the major industry/moneyspinner is based on rural enterprises in those locality's,and as a result almost all the businesses in town suffer as a result of the decreased production.
Not trying to start an argument here but its difficult for city folk to even comprehend a fraction of the hardship that such a drought has for many small western communities.
I sincerely hope and pray for good rain for all you southern folk.

regards

Scott

[joeT]

I remember fishing Somerset when I was a kid (about 15 years ago). From where I used to sit and fish back then, the water has receded so far now that I can't even cast and hit the water from that spot anymore, I would just hit dry land.

You've got some great photos there Kev (and in your album too).

[finga]

I remember the drought in the 90's (still going I reckon) out Warwick. The farmers around Lesley had to keep fencing down to the water so the cows wouldn't walk around them and go to somewhere they shouldn't be.

On my place it was the first time the dam was dry in 60odd years as the fella up the road could remember it getting dug and he's never seen it dry before.
Amasing though was when it did rain the little crays or what-ever you call them came back up out of the bottom of the dam. Apparently they can last for ages down deep.

[Little grey men]

Beautiful pictures. scary topic.
Your quite handy with a camera my friend.

[kingtin]

interesting that that stream seemed to be running pretty well. It must be between the dams??

Its just downstream from one of them, yes. I'm surprised that they're letting some out, unless it's the residue from driving the turbines.

kev

[blaze]

Love your pictures Kev.
Dont suppose its funny, maybe ironic, but thats how I see Australia, as a dry arid country that people have tried to change over years to enhance their oportunity for a better life. Take for instants the farmers growing crops in area's that were never suitable for that crop. Take a look at the poor old murrey river, well whats left of it. Then take Tassie for another example of wasted land, farm land with rich soil that my grandfather and his generation spend hours/years clearing only to be planted with tree plantations when for years they grew food for the masses.
So maybe our future needs to be dictated by our past and use the land for its natural intented purpose whilst remembering it is a dry arid land.
cheers
blaze

[nigelr]

Things are going to be very grim without a decent spring storm season this year.
Not to mention if the dry summer trend of 2000 - 2005 returns.
As I write the NE is blowing as though it is already November, not a good omen IMO.
Hope BOM is correct with their 'trending wetter' predictions for this summer.
Cheers.

[finga]

A couple of pictures of my bovine friends from my old farm in the middle of the drought in mid '90's in Warwick.
The surrounding paddocks is what the whole Darling Downs looked like back then :(

[Mattg68]

certainly looks crook doesn't it. we're going to need some serious rain to get it back.

hey Kev, sounds like you checked the lines mate.

Matt

[ashh]

maybe the government should use pictures like that in some shock add compaign, like the speeding adds. Id bet theres many people that dont know (or care) how bad the situation really is.
Saw a thing on TV about reducing 'bad water abusers' water pressure to there homes. Might seem drastic but if its going to make them save water, why not?.....but thats another story.
Hinze doesn't look quite as bad as that.......but its only gonna be a matter of time :(


Great pics tho mate ;)

[el_carpo]

Great pics of a scary situation Kingtin. I've been hearing about the drought but seeing the pics really says it all.

How long has it been since you guys have had a decent rainfall? Months? Years?

Is there anything that can be done? I've heard that the Israelis and Saudi Arabians have been making some advances in their desalination processes. Also, a Scotch scientist (can't recall his name right now) said he had invented a "rain machine." It was a device that utilized wave motion to power a water desalinator/vaporizor. I believe the devices were placed in the sea and shot vapor into the sky in such quantities that they would form rain clouds. That might help the west coast of Aus.

There has to be an answer to drought. When we find it, we'll solve all sorts of problems along with it.

[kingtin]

certainly looks crook doesn't it. we're going to need some serious rain to get it back.

hey Kev, sounds like you checked the lines mate.

Matt

Too right! I only found 'em 'cause I tripped over the first one and went flat on my face ::)

No names on 'em, and not only illegal, but also a hazard to animal and human alike.

kev

[kingtin]

Great pics of a scary situation Kingtin. I've been hearing about the drought but seeing the pics really says it all.

How long has it been since you guys have had a decent rainfall? Months? Years?



EC, it's pretty difficult trying to quote figures on rainfall, particularly in the SE corner of Qld. The rain can be very localised and even more so since the population increase. There is a theory that the population increase was so sudden (here) that air pollution levels rose almost overnight and this pollution is acting as some kind of shield that diverts the rain clouds that once used to shed in this area. This of course is only a further exacerbation to the national drought in general. Someone else may be able to clarify what I am saying/heard.

We had some good (unseasonal) rainfall a few months back which unfortunately, mostly missed the dam catchment areas, and what would otherwise have been a significant fall if it had been nearer the dams, in fact only added another 2 days supply to the reservoirs.

An unseasonal winter "wet" was forecast by many "professionals" but so far, this hasn't happened.

kev

[rando]

EC
The drought is a product of a series of El Nino events that have shifted the currents and wind patterns over the western pacific ocean.
We have not had our traditional rainfall patterns ( Summer Storms,/ Deep low pressure systems/cyclones that move inland and rain on the dam catchments)
For 10 years. Some of the inland areas have been experiencing drought for even longer.
Its pretty drastic and a lot of climatologists are saying "get used to it"

[Blaster Bretty]

Wow kev,,,, those pic's relly ram it on home how severe the drought really is, going by those pic's you took brisbane will be out of water soon!!!! (1 yr or so),, The hinze needs to raised and quickly because like it or not brissie will be getting water from there too,, the rainfall in the hinze catchment is suprising everyone and with summer on our doorstep good old hinzy looks set for another drenching,
I will agree with "BLAZE" on the fact that OZ is well known to be the dryest continent on earth, and on the earths time scale this so called drought isnt even!!! meaning we are currently going through one of the earths ever changing weather cycle's.
with the advantage of hindsight we should have dug wivenhoe deeper and increased its capacity 10 fold, the national water grid is about 20yrs too late, the list goes on,,,, god help us!!
P.s no im not religious its just a saying.....cheers

Bretty

[PinHead]

if Goss had built Wolffdene and piped it in woth Wivenhoe and Somerset etc then we would not be having any problems. It is all to do with global warming..we'll all die of thrist soon..I know..just ask all these scientists

[nigelr]

I acknowledge the risk of being pilloried for simplistic thinking, (probably quite deservedly!) but personally I believe water will become the 'melange' of the future.
That is to say, it will replace oil in the order of human importance, as oil replaced coal, or gold.
No water, no humans!
It never ceases to amaze me that we in Australia let so much of this priceless resource go 'un-harvested' every time it does rain.
There is a great deal to be said for water tanks IMO, we have 2x5000l tanks in our 'suburban' back yard, even though we are on 'town' water.
One day before too long governments may rue the waste of clean fresh water that flows unused down our gutters every time it rains!
Perhaps something could be done with the Fed Govs' 8.5 bill 'surplus'??????
(Other than itm paying for their re-election campaign, that is!)::)
Cheers.

[finga]

if Goss had built Wolffdene and piped it in woth Wivenhoe and Somerset etc then we would not be having any problems. It is all to do with global warming..we'll all die of thrist soon..I know..just ask all these scientists
You will never go thirsty as long as there's a brewery around and if that fails you can always resort to ginger based beverages that don't need much water.

And yes...directly blame the Government for not catering for the population explosion of the SE corner of QLD. Bloody hell...when was the last dam built (or any large infrastructure project for that matter) and what was the population of this area then???...and what is the population now??
No wonder there's no water able to be stored.
It's like a 100 head of cattle trying to drink out of a bathtub full of water...it's all good until it stops raining then the poo hits the fan:(

Gees there's going to be a lot a disappointed people when it does rain.
Long droughts in Australia are a matter of fact.
Look back in history for just the last 150 years...there's been some doosy dry's and on the other hand some ripper floods as well.
All cyclic and heaven help a lot of people when (not if) a decent flood hits Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
It's all to do with all the Sardines in Peru and Chile why we have a dry at the moment.
Just my 2 bobs worth :)

[Poodroo]

Hi Kev. The drought is a very real problem but I'd like to add your photos are first class. Remind me to ask you to show me your camera when I am next at your place.

Cheers,

Poodroo

[kingtin]

Hi Kev. The drought is a very real problem but I'd like to add your photos are first class. Remind me to ask you to show me your camera when I am next at your place.

Cheers,

Poodroo

Will do mate but, the camera is merely the vehicle.................I'm the driver. I take my test soon ;) ;D

Seriously though. The pictures of the drought are my first serious attempt with digital. I still much prefer film but alas, I no longer have my darkroom and my attempts at dark room techniques with photoshop have proved a disaster.

Most of the stuff in my portfolio was created with no other person involved. I shot, I developed, and I printed, both colour and black and white, but it has become far too expensive a hobby to pursue since digital took over.

kev

[PinHead]

I acknowledge the risk of being pilloried for simplistic thinking, (probably quite deservedly!) but personally I believe water will become the 'melange' of the future.
That is to say, it will replace oil in the order of human importance, as oil replaced coal, or gold.
No water, no humans!
It never ceases to amaze me that we in Australia let so much of this priceless resource go 'un-harvested' every time it does rain.
There is a great deal to be said for water tanks IMO, we have 2x5000l tanks in our 'suburban' back yard, even though we are on 'town' water.
One day before too long governments may rue the waste of clean fresh water that flows unused down our gutters every time it rains!
Perhaps something could be done with the Fed Govs' 8.5 bill 'surplus'??????
(Other than itm paying for their re-election campaign, that is!)::)
Cheers.

there is not shortage of water on the planet..look at the rain NQ got this year..the floods in the UK and elsewhere..plenty of it about...just not in our little part of the world at the moment.

that water flowing down our gutters is not a waste...it is an integral part of flushing estuary systems etc..if you stopped all of that then I would hate to think what the Bay and surrounds would be like.

[kingtin]

that water flowing down our gutters is not a waste...it is an integral part of flushing estuary systems etc..if you stopped all of that then I would hate to think what the Bay and surrounds would be like.

I'm not so sure if that is (wholly) true. Yes, the systems need flushing but they're falsely flushed compared with "nature's flush".

Before the land was concreted and tarmaced over, the flush would have been a good deal less I would have thought, with the soil and vegetative surrounds absorbing a great deal more than they do today. Add to that, the crap that gets flushed into the systems nowadays and I think it could be considered detrimental as well as beneficial. As to which is the greater, I wouldn't know, but I agree, without the flush estuaries and bays would probably be in a sorry state.

I just think that there should have been (or should be in future) a lot more research into the benefits of controlling that flush by way of diverting or wholly harvesting some non-essential run-off such as flows down our streets in a storm. In days gone by it would find it's own way (or not) into the river system and to be honest, I think the increase in water tanks may well be not just beneficial to the individual but storage via tanks will hopefully replicate the past's "holding pattern" from vegetation and soil.

kev

[blaze]

Will do mate but, the camera is merely the vehicle.................I'm the driver. I take my test soon ;) ;D

Seriously though. The pictures of the drought are my first serious attempt with digital. I still much prefer film but alas, I no longer have my darkroom and my attempts at dark room techniques with photoshop have proved a disaster.

Most of the stuff in my portfolio was created with no other person involved. I shot, I developed, and I printed, both colour and black and white, but it has become far too expensive a hobby to pursue since digital took over.

kev
I reckon some of the best photo's ever taken are black and white, 15 years since I had a dark room set up for photo's although I did have one set up for making screens and plates when I dabled in screen printing and running a small offset press. Sorta miss them days.
cheers
blaze

[kingtin]

I reckon some of the best photo's ever taken are black and white, 15 years since I had a dark room set up for photo's although I did have one set up for making screens and plates when I dabled in screen printing and running a small offset press. Sorta miss them days.
cheers
blaze

Getting high on the chemicals, locking the dark room door, leaving the world outside and waiting for the image to appear on the paper............nothing like it :D

kev

[OISTA]

Ive been a rural firefighter for the past 10 years and have never found it harder to find a water source. All the old dams and ponds we used to use in the mountains I live in are dry, and it's a long drive to get water when ya really need it.
Oh well, it'll get better at some stage
Until then I'll just have to keep doing my bit and drink beer instead of water:P