And then the rain arrived

It started raining at 8am and it didn’t really stop until 4 or 5pm.  Just clearing up in time for a few photographs in sunshine, but not many.  It rained continually and to the point where I had to dig a moat around the chook house to stop the water running into the chook house and divert it around the outside.  Life outside was very, very wet and the creek could be heard from inside the house, our house not the chook house that is.  Here when you can hear the creek it is high, when it is silent, it is at its normal level.

The usual water level in our side creek.
The usual water level in our side creek.

Last Saturday the side creek was like these two pictures.

The usual water levels in early spring.
The usual water levels in early spring.

Then it rained, over 2cm inside 9-10 hours.  These 2, above and below show the same area, the picture above is shown in the top left of the one below (hope that makes sense) and from a slightly different angle, but I could not get to where I had taken the picture on Saturday because of the water levels and rather a lot of water running off the mountainside from the right of the picture below.

Slightly more water in it today.
Slightly more water in it today.

The pictures below are all of the ‘main’ creek (Turallo Creek).  Usually you can cross this creek without getting your feet wet! And in fact I was standing at one of the main kangaroo/wombat crossing points for both creeks.

Water, water.... Australia is hot and dry apparently!
Water, water…. Australia is hot and dry apparently!

In the picture above, the water is well over 3m deep (9-10 foot) at the deepest, if not deeper.  No way I was getting any closer to it.  And I am told that Australia is a dry, arid country.  Hummm perhaps it is because all the rain simply runs away rather than being absorbed into the land?

This is normally a crossing point on the side creek. Not today. That water is well over a meter deep in the middle!
This is normally a crossing point on the side creek. Not today. That water is well over a meter deep in the middle!

If you look carefully, you can see the crossing points.  One in the bottom right and the other is just above the ‘rapids’ on the left.  That water is over 2 meters (6 foot) deep in the middle.  Usually you can hop across the rocks and not get your feet wet.

It rained a touch today. These 2 creeks are normally crossable at this point!
It rained a touch today. These 2 creeks are normally crossable at this point!

Nope, not getting anywhere near this!

That waterfall does not normally exist. Usually it is dry on the opposite mountainside.
That waterfall does not normally exist.
Usually it is dry on the opposite mountainside.

Those shiny patches (below) are running water, water literally running off the mountainside down into the bottom paddock which was under water twice during the day.

Slightly wet today
Slightly wet today.

On the bright side of things, the rain water tanks are almost full and we are due a few days to dry out before the next deluge arrives!  I should get chance to get the bore water tank full as well.  That shed is in fact an old stable which houses the bore water pump and there is plenty of water down there for it to pump back up to the top of the hill from where it ran off from in the first place.  The irony.