I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of drought and flooding rains. My Country - Dorothea Mackellar (Excerpt) You may have heard that the east coast of Australia has copped a battering with rain event after rain event. Whenever this happens I think of Dorothea McKellar's iconic poem "My Country" and the second verse "Of drought and flooding rains". City folk are generally a bit protected from the reality of drought and flood but 2022 changed all that. Areas of Brisbane that don't normally flood went under - mainly around creeks - a combination of record rain fall (300mm in one day) and tidal surge. This creek (above) is less than a kilometre from the house, and on this day, we were cut off by 3 separate flooded creeks - we were high and dry, but stuck. We faired a lot better than others who lost cars, whose houses and businesses were flooding including people of Maryborough and Lismore, both sit on a river and suffered catastrophic flooding. An ex-colleague lost their life, swept off a flooded road. Down at the farm, we've replaced the cross river fences six times since November. The river is a single deep fast flowing channel at the back end of the block. At the road end of the block it splits into two channels, one faster and deeper than the other, before rejoining just before the road bridge. So we have 3 crossings to refence (+ support fencing) to keep our cows safe. I don't have photos. The water is too deep, fast and unpredictable to risk carrying an iPhone. We work in waders (armpit high on me), and concentrate of navigating where its safe to cross, while stringing barbed wire. (Safety first) We spent easter at the farm and worked all day every day. Fencing a span on dry land is a piece of cake compared to rescuing an existing fence to restring it, in a metre of fast flowing water. This time, we strung new wire, and when the water comes down we'll rescue the old wire, ready to restring the next time. I'll leave you with a photo of the river in calmer times. (Right now, it is raging, trees pushed over, mud everywhere) We are lucky to have the water, having just come out of drought. And we haven't lost property or any of our maternity cows. While hiking up to the other side of the back crossing (its too fast/deep for me to cross) I saw evidence of cattle. Someone else's cattle have lost their fences and decided to follow the river. When last sighted, they had just swum across the river at our back crossing and were heading west. We've had cows turn up from 10km away, so goodness only knows where they have come from... |
Fiona Greene AuthorWhen you set out on a journey and night falls, that's when you will discover the stars." Archives
November 2022
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