Results of 8 days of rain

[Ezookiel]

This small creek used to run slowly through the central portion.




I wouldn't drive my 4wd across this section of a local bike path. That water was moving pretty darned fast.


There are some ledges that we used to climb up OUT OF THE WATER to get to, to sit and have a rest while swimming, somewhere under all that water going under the Tharwa Bridge.



The Point Hut Crossing road used to go from right to left, just in front of those background trees.



The Point Hut Crossing Road vanishing into the depths.



A quite poorly stitched attempt at a pano to show how much wider the river now is at the Tharwa Bridge. It normally flows mostly between the two central supports, with small amounts going around the sides.



Another somewhat dodgy stitching attempt to show the width of the river under the Tharwa Bridge at the moment. The submerged trees to the left are the usual picnicing area, where many a fine Christmas Lunch has been had by the family.

[ricktas]

Thanks for sharing these. Many more to come from all over NSW and Vic at present, I feel. Stay safe!

[dacar]

Impressive. Can you post "before" or "after" shots so we can compare these tot he "normal" situation?
I hope you didn't do anything risky or illegal to get these shot from the bridge!

[Ezookiel]

Funny you should say that. The bridge were the "legal" ones.
The others the Rangers had the road closed and said no-one could go down there. I asked if I could walk down to take some photos and got told no, and that I could get photos from the bridge several kms away. So I did. But on the way back as I drove past where the Rangers had the road blocked, I saw a number of other people walking down the old road some half a km away, that is now a bike path. This path is the other side of a small ridge from the Rangers, so feeling like a rebel for the first time in my life (always been a mega "goody-two-shoes" who doesn't do these sorts of things) I decided to also walk down the bike path as well.

That was when I found why the road was closed, and why the bike path wasn't. A car had rolled on the road the night before, and they were probably stopping people going down the road, not because of the flooded road, but because of the accident scene. They didn't seem to care about the bike path.
However, I didn't so much as get a foot wet taking the photos. Every shot was taken from carefully chosen places where the ground was firm, no risk of collapse into the water, and where the water at that spot was still water so if I had somehow miraculously ended up in the water, I'd not get washed away. I was keen for a shot, but I'm not going to die for a photo. I was probably too careful as there were some better vantage points I'd have liked to try but wasn't prepared to risk them. I have way too much respect for emergency personnel who'd end up having to rescue me to put myself in any risk at all.
I don't have current photos of the area that I know of, but can always resurrect this thread when the water levels return to normal levels and post some new (better stitched) photos (I knew I should have taken the tripod. Makes panning for panos so much more succesful to stitch.

[Opus40]

It is amazing how much water is around atm. our back yard had a small creek about 2 meters wide and yester day it was about 50m across. thanks for sharing

[mechawombat]

in January this was the river flowing under Tharwa bridge

[Ezookiel]

Wow. Thanks Mechawombat for those pics. I knew it was a heap wider, but those shots really give the width of water above some real perspective.

There's only one "hole" in each pylon now visible, where there used to be two. The ledges we used to climb up on to have a rest are much deeper down than I thought. I'd mistaken them for being just under the water in my pics, but forgot there were two holes, and looking at your pics, those ledges are a probably 10 to 12 feet under. Wow!

[mechawombat]

Yeah when I saw your shots I was AMAZED considering we walked around right around the pylons next to the river

[mors]

Thanks for the images

[Tommo224]

Oh my god, so much water !! I didn't realise the scale of the first photos until the "after" shots. Wow.

[DoubleMint]

how do people cross that bridge???

[Ezookiel]

how do people cross that bridge???

If using a car, they have to cross In single file only.
Have to stop and wait till anyone already on the bridge has exited.
There are a couple of alcoves on the bridge for pedestrians to hop into if a car comes while you're walking across (my last shot was taken from in one of them)
But in honesty, there's probably room for a pedestrian and a careful driver without using the alcoves.

"Completed in March 1895, the Tharwa Bridge located at Tharwa, Australian Capital Territory, was the second Allan truss to be built, the
oldest surviving bridge in the Australian Capital Territory and the oldest, longest in continuous use Allan truss bridge.."

Of course, that also means that half the time the damned thing is closed for repairs. Allan Truss are a maintenance heavy type apparently, and there are reasons there are so few remaining ones around.

There is a good aerial shot of the bridge someone else has taken at this link, and it also shows really well how little water normally flows under the bridge, though a lot of the grey area has been built up by the roadworks and stuff that they are doing under, around, and on the bridge to try to prevent the constant maintenance needs > http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgu...9QEwBQ&dur=520

And here is one taken by someone that calls themself Bidgee, at Wikimedia (clever play on Wikipedia), which actually shows how you get across the bridge > http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...e_at_Thawa.jpg