MyGardenPal Blog

So, how about this rain?

According to the local rag we had 400mm dumped on us here in the Gold Coast Hinterland on Saturday night.  This is apparenlty, “the worst dunking in at least 25 years”, to quote the GC Bully.

Swale blowout!

Our property faired quite well considering the deluge.  However, we had one swale ‘blow out’, and the wall of our second new dam did not cope with the sudden onslaught of water rushing down the hill.

The swale with the collapsed wall was the one we were capturing water from the road with.  The original idea was to bring in water from the road into the swale to help with the soil restoration, rather than let it run down the hill and go to waste.  But we did not (could not) anticipate anything like the amount of water pummeling down the road on Saturday night.  The swale filled as it should, but the constant pounding of the water rushing from the road, and the torrential downpour from above, teamed for a two pronged attack, that became too much for the swale mound to handle.  GUSH!

On top of nearly a weeks worth of rain, the flood gates of heaven opened up about 1am on Saturday night when we had the aforementioned 400mm start to fall.   The photo here was taken the next day in the afternoon and you can see the water is still gushing through the gap in the swale.    All of that water runs a short distance straight into the dam below.

Down to the dam

We have a short swale that is kind of part of the dam.  The idea is to feed water into the dam, and then when it is full it acts as a spillway out the other end, where the water would rund down to the lower dam.  Unfortunately, the top of the dam was too weak from the pounding rain and sudden on-rush from the broken swale.  So, the top of the dam wall gave out before the water level was high enough to take the designed overflow course.

Breach!

The photo to the right shows how the top of the dam wall collapsed and the gush of water has eroded a valley into the dam wall.  All the debris from this breach ended up across the road below the wall and into the community garden area below.  What a mess!  Luckily the breach in the wall only happened at the top of the dam, so we still have a dam full of water.

At least it is full

Funny how a few weeks back I was thinking it would take months to fill this dam!  DAMN!

The swales on the other side of the property faired much better.  They did what they were supposed to do, captured the water and slowed down the flow.

Below are a few photos of our main dam, and the “summer creek” that now looks like a river!

Once this rain stops and we get a few days of dry,  it will be time to clean up and fix the dam wall and swale.  I’ll be sure to keep you updated with how things progress.  Now, where did I put my gum boots?

Whitewater

Where's my raft?