More photos...

A few more photos from the last few days - mainly from Wattlewood.

The rush of water from a local dam. This dam is effectively occluding a gully so that it now rarely gets any flow of water but for now is getting plenty.
















The now full dam at Wattlewood. Prior to some welcome rain at the end of February which also ended the bush fire threat, the dam was getting close to being empty.

Water is still gently flowing in - and out - of the dam as water seeps from the surrounding gentle slope.









The wattle from which the property gained its name has mostly died of old age and this wet and stormy weather has pushed another batch over, creating views through the now open bush.

This more open effect is how this type of grassy woodland is meant to be and experimental treatments to be planned in conjunction with Trust for Nature are going to look at how to support this in the blocks future.





















A collection of water after the floods. We are confident that we will be overwhelmed by mosquitoes in coming weeks. They are always a problem here although one of the few positives about the long dry was that their numbers were bearable!!!

Signs of renewal. Only a week after the first heavy rain fell and already new growth pops up.















The gully at the rear of Wattlewood - normally no flow at all and sometimes a billabong in the widest part of the stream shown here.

...a land of droughts and flooding plains...

Well Dorothea MacKeller is once again being quoted around the place as nature shows its sense of drama by following a long drought which was capped after spectacular fires with an equally spectacular flood!!! For the complete words to the poem click here.

These photos (Below) include some from the area as well as some from Wattlewood. We have been relatively - no very - lucky here. Certainly a lot of water and it is stiil flowing into the now overflowing dam. In fact after a lonmg walk around the place today we have been surprised about how much water is still flowing across the landscape.

We have had 296 mls over the week of the flood event. Last year we had a total for the whole year of 390.6 so this last weeks total is an amazing amount!!!

The road just past Wattlewood - blocked by the normally trickling stream into a small torrent... and yet another tree across the road. It took the sawing up of 5 trees (in driving rain) on the way out to work and another 2 on the way back in on Wednesday.

Probably a better choice would have been to stay at home!

The Port of Bairnsdale picnic area before the peak of the flood - about 1100 hrs on 28/06/07

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A swan uses the new watery highway formed by the flooding of the Paynesville Road adjacent to the MacLeod Morass. 28/06/07 Aprox. 0930 hrs

Drought and flooding plains...

Well Australia is again strutting its stuff in East Gippsland this time. After years of drought we have a solid East Coast Low happening with buckets of rain over the last week. We had around 150 Mls last week and have had nearly 100 mls over the last 24 hours.

Going to work this morning - in retrospect not a great idea - involved getting out of the 4WD several times to chainsaw fallen trees and moire times to drag branches from the road. Several sections of road had quite deep flows of water across them.

Many staff were stuck at home due to the floods and danger of traveling in the fierce winds. Warnings of being stuck in town for a few days if the rain kept up meant a rapid trip back home with even more water over roads, a couple more trees across the road to cut and remove... very exciting as all went well but a little scary too...

Rivers across the region are set to match past floods from 1990 and 1998. Such a contrast - we have had in a week about as much rain as we had eked out to us in around 6 months last year!!!

Paddocks are covered in water, ducks swim in the middle of the road to Wattlewood. The dam which was within a metre of being empty in early February is now within 30 cm of overflowing. The whole (gentle) slope of the property is awash with water - to the extent that even when rain stops for a while there is a solid sheet of clear water flowing between the grasses, mosses and matts of leaves..

Once again the ABC has been wonderful in providing up to date information. Of course there is also the internet with services giving updates on a regular basis.

From the Wattlewood Website...

Spring is springing...

This is coming into the exciting time of year for flora when we have to rack our brains to remember the various plants that we had mastered last year! The wax lipped orchid is now out - took us by surprise really.

Nearby are sundew - glistening and sticky. The bird life seems more than ever this year - lots of parrots tearing the blossom from the gums. More flowers on the stringy barks than we can remember actually.

Welcome to Wattlewood

This site will be linked to a web page also called Wattlewood (still under construction).

A primary aim of this blog is to allow communication with people who may have something to offer us in terms of botanical or common names of flora on the Victorian (Australia) property called Wattlewood.

We are very amateur collators of information about our Australian bush block.

(Photo - Left) Grass Trigger Plant - in flower now - along with dozens of others, as it is Spring in Australia at present