Nothing to see here...

Nothing much of any note has occurred in the week since the last blog entry...

Plenty more rain, some rain, a little sunshine, more rain, oh and some rain. If this keeps up I will have webbed feet and gills.

So as I said nothing much to report and definitely no progress on the pool.

I thought today I might check out Colleges crossing which has been closed due to flooding for a couple of weeks now. I crossed Colleges crossing when I drove up from Ballarat but could not remember the crossing in detail, or at all for that matter! I guess a 200 meter section of a 1800km drive is going to be a little hard to recall.

Colleges Crossing 5/3/2013

As you can see from these photos I took on the 5th of March the river is high and very wide whilst the water in the middle is moving at quite a pace, some four to five metres above the road level.

Colleges Crossing 5/3/2013

Flood Level Indicator Colleges Crossing

The paint marking indicates the level of the flooding (about 8 to 9m) this year and pales in comparison to the flood of 2011in the photo below that I found by searching on the interwebs google images. 

High water mark 2011 Colleges Crossing

The tree in the water in the middle of the water in the photo (I found on google images) above is the dead and droopy looking thing at the base of the tree in this shot below. The truck was parked roughly where I stood to take the photos I posted above. The high water mark in 2011 was about 60 or 70m further up the road and more than 10m higher.

Colleges Crossing clean up post 2011 flood

The crossing is closed currently by road blocks, with signage stating the level of demerit and fines applied if you attempt to cross in a vehicle. Given any attempt would end in death I fail to see the point of such signs, however from the photos below you can see that some people will attempt to cross flooded roads that are signed as closed anyway...

Volvo flooded while crossing Pullen Pullen Creek in Grandview Rd.

While taking these photos I got to have a chat with a local who was at pains to tell me that each time this creek floods he has to retrieve someone out of one of the two crossings nearby that are inundated. People it seems are incredibly stupid when it comes to flooded roads. The people who risk their own lives to save them are brave if  not a little silly for putting their own lives at risk to save the stupid. He told me of one family that were washed down stream in a flood, a young man passing by dove into the water to help save their lives, fortunately for the rescuer the barbed wire fence that was normally in situ  had been washed away by the flood water, he was able to save the older lady trapped in the car, but was lucky he didn't lose his own life to save others.

Signage and massive fines and demerits don't seem to be a deterrent, perhaps a different approach is required. My suggestion would be to remove all road closed signs and replace them with a cross at your risk sign and have bigger and better depth markers, maybe even some indicators to show the speed of the water over the crossing. Then let the morons cross if they feel the need and Darwin's theory of evolution should take care of the rest. I am sure this will at least reduce the number of people who are dumb enough to attempt to cross a flooded road. Might lift the average IQ and even improve the gene pool a little as well.

One wrecked and written off Swedish taxi.

Anyway fingers crossed for some better weather in the next week.