Summer drought....no water

[doofus]

Whilst most of you folks in the Northern hemisphere have been shivering through your winter, we here in Australia have been enduring some of the worst conditions mother nature can throw at us.

The Eastern coast-line of Australia has suffered massive flooding from cyclones and torrential rains, but where I live on the West coast, we have suffered from years of drought.

To say the drought conditions are affecting our boating and boarding areas and waterways would be putting it mildly. Every dam and lake where I used to go boarding has now dried up to just puddles. All areas are obviously closed to boating due to safety reasons.

My boat is now just sitting in the garage gathering cobwebs..

Here is a couple of pics of Waroona dam showing what the level used to be like, and how it has dropped down over the last few years to be nothing more than a puddle in the middle of a dust bowl now.http://img199.imageshack.us/i/pict00140001.jpg/http://img31.imageshack.us/i/waroona3.jpg/http://img864.imageshack.us/i/waroona1a.jpg/http://img851.imageshack.us/i/waroona2.jpg/

[csuggs]

Didn't get the pic doofus. I would love to give you some of our rain - somewhere around 7 or 8 inches in West Virginia just in the month of April. Our rivers are so flooded that it will probably take 6 weeks for them to get cleared of mud, trees, picnic tables, barrels, etc.
Sorry about your drought man, that's serious business . . .

[doofus]

For some stupid reason I cant seem to load pics either directly or by url link from my home pc...will have to do it from my work pc when I head back to work in a few days time

[Fman]

Thats a bummer, hopefully rain will be coming your way... hopefully its not a sign of global warming. We had a pretty dry year in Nor-cal in 2007, the lakes were starting to get pretty low. This year we are 4" over normal.

Can you tow your boat to the east side and keep it stored over there to use?

[jmpotter]

Everything goes in cycles. My lake was 22 feet below full just 3 years ago and now it is 1 foot above full. It's one thing to have your boat stuck in the garage, it's a little worse when your entire dock is sitting on dry land.

Hopefully your cycle is coming around soon!

[doofus]

Ok, let's try these pics again...First is is the dam a few years ago, and the second one is last year. Third and fourth pics are the dam as it is now!!!
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/9135/pict00140001.th.jpg (http://img199.imageshack.us/i/pict00140001.jpg/)http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/8834/waroona3.th.jpg (http://img31.imageshack.us/i/waroona3.jpg/)http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/1149/waroona2.th.jpg (http://img851.imageshack.us/i/waroona2.jpg/)http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/2210/waroona1a.th.jpg (http://img864.imageshack.us/i/waroona1a.jpg/)

[DAFF]

Hard to think that was once a lake. I hope the fall brings lots of precip to your region.

[Fman]

Wow, that really sucks... when was the last time that lake has been dry? Hopefully this is not a sign of global warming (if you believe in it). You could always buy a quad or dirtbike... at least you could be in the lake doing something :)

[cadunkle]

That's insane. We've had rain almost every day for a couple weeks. I've been sick of it, just lots of rain and high winds. Not great when I'm trying to get the boat out. But at least I still have a body of water to ride in.

Hopefully things swing back. Has that reservoir ever been that low before?

[Razzman]

Doofus, my brother is a 10 year yank transplant and lives in Western Australia. He tells me it's brutal there, feel for you.

[dusty2221]

Thats very hard to look at. Wow. Thanks for posting those.

[doofus]

The dam gets reasonably low every summer, but I can never remember it ever getting as low as it is right now.

Unfortuantely pretty much every lake and dam in the surrounding areas in in the same condition, and all have been closed to boating and boarding.

Even the lake I lease at Bonneys waterski park is now that low I can no longer use it. http://www.bonneyswaterskipark.com.au/

The only place we have left to board is in the local river (which is salt) and it is now so extremely crowded that it has become unsafe to ride there anyway...

We are really suffering and are now desperately hanging out for some serious winter rains

[Skylar18]

My lake is running out of water as well. It had too much water in it last year, but we have had no rain for over 6 months. We need some of the rain the rest of the country is getting right now.

[Chuck Yager]

Wow man! That is crazy! We have been fairly dry here in northeastern OK, but nothing of that magnitude. I hate that for you... We on the other hand have just finished getting 12-14" of rain in 4 days. Rivers have hit record flood levels and the lake is almost 4' from spilling over the dam. I wish I could send about 20 feet of water off my lake in your direction. I hope the situation turns around for you soon!

[mariabastet]

Ok, let's try these pics again...First is is the dam a few years ago, and the second one is last year. Third and fourth pics are the dam as it is now!!!
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/9135/pict00140001.th.jpg (http://img199.imageshack.us/i/pict00140001.jpg/)http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/8834/waroona3.th.jpg (http://img31.imageshack.us/i/waroona3.jpg/)http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/1149/waroona2.th.jpg (http://img851.imageshack.us/i/waroona2.jpg/)http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/2210/waroona1a.th.jpg (http://img864.imageshack.us/i/waroona1a.jpg/)

that's frightening!!

[doofus]

These couple of pics are from another completely different dam in Western Australia (Logue Brook Dam) about 50 klms South of the other first posted pics (Waroona Dam) . It also is now nothing but a dust bowl




http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1290/logues1.th.jpg (http://img405.imageshack.us/i/logues1.jpg/)http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/266/49991152.th.jpg (http://img856.imageshack.us/i/49991152.jpg/)

[cadunkle]

Crazy. How bad is this affecting infrastructure and day to day life? I assume these reservoirs are used for running water in homes and such?

[doofus]

Crazy. How bad is this affecting infrastructure and day to day life? I assume these reservoirs are used for running water in homes and such?

Yeah, those dams are supposed to provide some of the region's drinking and irrigation water, but obviously are now unable to do so.

The Government and Water Authority of WA have been running a massive education campaign via every form of media trying to get every body to save 60 litres per day.

The Government imposed sprinkler bans last summer, so unless you had a bore, you were only allowed to water your lawns and gardens via the mains water one day a week.

The Government is in the process of building several desalination plants so as to be able to convert salty water to fresh, and I think they are also considering building a plant that will treat sewerage grey water to drinkable water also.

Although the East coast of Australia suffered from massive floods late last year, the irony of it is that before the floods, many areas on the East coast had suffered from years of severe drought.

I have family who live in Victoria on the East coast and for years they had total sprinkler bans in place meaning you could not water lawns or gardens at all. If you wanted to water your gardens you had to use a bucket to catch water when you had a shower and then use that for the garden.

They also weren't allowed to wash their cars, (except for windscreens and headlights) & weren't allowed to install swimming pools or spas etc...They were in desperate desperate times, so I hope we in WA on the West coast don't face the same prospects.

Australia certainly is a land of extremes. There is not much middle ground, it is either flood or drought.

[doofus]

And this what Logue Brook Dam used to be like before the drought..

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3183/maphe.th.jpg (http://img43.imageshack.us/i/maphe.jpg/)http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/4707/logues2.th.jpg (http://img163.imageshack.us/i/logues2.jpg/)