TC Calling Cards 2

You may have noticed I have been a little quiet this past couple of weeks… I’ll be making up for it this post!

(In other words, grab a coffee or beverage of choice and settle in…)

While I have shared the immediate aftermath of what Tropical Cyclone Marcia did to the creek crossing nearest our house a couple of days ago, we have managed to get a bit further afield, into our local town (over bridge pictured above) as waters recede, and little further up the paddock (and upstream) to see what damage this cranky little storm has done to the rest of our place.This is our big bridge, that went under AGAIN (third time in four years).  Although it wasn’t quite as high as the previous two floods, the debris this time is substantial.

I have to admit, I am a bit shocked with our creek system though. With prolonged floods, such as those in previous years, you expect waterways to swell and take out fences and roads along with some overall damage (like in the 2011 and 2013 floods).

This weather event, however, happened pretty much overnight – in the dark – with an estimated 15 inches falling at the headwaters of our creek and waters rising fast, then substantially receded by morning.  The damage done by that short, sharp event is really incredible.

It ran around two metres higher than in previous floods, wiping out fences and roads, trees and troughs, changing the actual form of the creek itself and leaving debris  EVERYWHERE.

My husband hard at work at one of the dozen fence creek crossings.  Rebuilding among the twisted timber in the now trickling waterway…

He was happy for me to take these pics – he reckons that he’s sick of photos of him looking like he’s doing nothing! (Check the front page of the Queensland Country Life, shown in the last post! Hah!).

We have a new off-sider working here this week.  For blog-purposes, her name is Meek.

She’s a sweet, almost-18-year old who has been THOROUGHLY thrown in the deep end.  Nothing like tackling a few kilometres of fences as soon as you arrive at a new workplace!She is proving a very quick learner and a hard worker already – a great combo in our workplace!

We are thinking the gloves have been an invaluable investment already…

Timber and barbed wire are not kind on hands.

Dash and Violet made the most of the cool work site while Mr I and Meek were sweating up a storm nearby…

The cool clear stream they frolicked in seems so pretty and tame in contrast to the mayhem it caused a week ago… Can you hear the trickling water?

Mr Incredible and I took Saturday afternoon ‘off’ to see how far we could get on the quad bike… to inspect what work was ahead of our little team.

This used to be a good road – I cannot even recall that granite boulder being there (I am sure it was, just surrounded by bottlebrush trees and sand).  The opposite side of the creek now has about 1.5 metres of sand like a wall.   A fair bit of tractor work needed to create a roadway fit for a ute or truck.

A nearby trough half-filled with sand and with the twisted head of a windmill in a ball nearby.  You can also see newly eroded creek banks in background.

A few kilometres upstream and you can see how the force of the water has eaten away soil at the bast of this cliff – note the gibber almost hanging at top right from more gravelly soil…

You can see how high the water ran (approx 4-5 metres) gouging out soil from around the base of trees and leaving bare rocks and roots.

Looking back at the brand new sandbank (around 2 1/2 metres high) blocking what was once a roadway (behind where Mr I is standing).

Bear in mind we have about 7 of these road crossings to negotiate… and this had been one of the ‘shallower’ crossings.

At other crossings giant logs stick at bizarre angles from the road, deeply buried in the new sand.   It got a bit rugged from this point so I left my hubs to go on alone while I rested and explored… of course, its times like these your imagination can get a little active… especially when you see evidence of other visitors!

A wild dog.  Quite a big one…

Something slippery.

Without legs…. Hmmmm.

It’s not all sand – some areas of the creek now have vast quantities of these smooth pebbles.

Quite gorgeous…

The one point in our drive that really hit home was the small sorting yards which Mr Incredible and our previous jackaroo (Callum) completed last year.

Doesn’t look TOO bad from this far back…

But on closer inspection…

I cannot imagine the force of the water that pushed this new fence at such an angle and left such thick debris four wires high.

Our cows were quite bemused by the new-look yards.

The creek was cutting a corner here we hadn’t seen it reach before…

Twisting gates and completely removing fences…

This big end post stayed pretty true, but the rest need some re-aligning!

Right up into the four-rail yards too.

This angle probably shows the landscape changes the best…

A little explanation for you…

There is no doubt that the weeks and months ahead will be filled with fence and road rebuilding.

You think if I tell him to ‘go play in the sand’ he’ll see the funny side?

😀

NB I am sharing this to show what happens in this weather event, not for sympathy. We know this is part and parcel of our lives out here, and we’d sure rather face this kind of work, than having to feed cattle in a drought.  Our hearts go to those who have had to watch us deal with a drenching when it’s all they dream of…