Its strange to be adding to this blog and not including any photos. I just haven't been using the camera for some unknown reason even when there have been plenty of opportunities. We have had old, sorry, that should be friends of long standing, staying with us. Val and Rod came out to celebrate their Ruby Wedding anniversary and to see their daughter who lives in Sydney. They stayed in Balmain with Jennifer and Brad but came to stay with us for a couple of nights. It was very difficult to not let on that we would all be meeting up again as Jennifer had arranged a surprise lunchtime cruise on the harbour. She had also arranged for her sister Ruth to fly out from the UK with her new baby as another surprise. We had a great day. We picked up Ruth and Jacob from their hotel, met up with other guests and boarded the boat prior to Val and Rod. Great surprise!! I thought Rod was going to have a heart attack! We had a private function room directly below the bridge and the food was very good.
A few days later and it was Di's birthday. We drove into Balmain to pick up Val and Rod, calling in at Becky's so that the boys could wish Nanna a Happy Birthday. Ben ran up to her and said, " Nanna we have made you a birthday cake but its a surprise and so I cant tell you.!" Whats that saying about out of the mouths of babes and sucklings! Anyway we spent the day showing Val and Rod the lovely beaches to the north of Sydney, lunching at Terrigal before heading up to The Entrance. We called in to Becky's on the way back home to have cake and champagne. Its been busy with all this running around and trying to fit work in as well.

The flood saga continues!! As expected the local paper was full of letters with strong condemnation of the unnecessary bridge closure. It turns out that there was so much infighting between Council, the local branch of the State Emergency Service, the RTA, and the Police that no one was prepared to make a decision. The final decision was made by a RTA road gang from out of the area who had never seen the river in flood before. Oh, and to top it off, the Roads and Traffic Authority is now called the Roads and Maritime Services, I wonder how many millions of dollars was spent to do that. Today there is a report in the SMH about concerns from local prominent people about what would happen, in a major flood like we have had in the past, to people who have built in low lying areas. One of these LPP just happens to be the ex mayor who passed all these building approvals. No wonder I have little hair left.

Farce continued!!

Agreed, we had plenty of rain and SOME local flooding but the roadway of the bridge never got wet. People were evacuated in our area that never needed to be. Sad to say, all these decisions were probably made by someone who had never experienced a flood in this area as it is 20 years since the last big one. The locals are not happy and are restless. It will be interesting to see what the local paper has to say.

Farce!!

This flood is turning into a bureaucratic farce!



This photo was taken at 6.38am on 02.03.2012



Approximately twenty-four hours later at 7.25am



This photo was taken at 6.44am on 02.03.2012



Approximately twenty-four hours later at 7.21am



Five hours later some bureaucrat makes the decision to close the bridge, the handrails have been cut off and yet the water level needs another metre to reach the roadway.



Radio and TV announce that the bridge is closed so everyone gathers expecting to see water flowing over the bridge. People are stranded on both sides, but no water.

We are now told that the river may go over the bridge sometime within the next 48 hours!! In the meantime Saturday has been disrupted for many people by some little man in power a long way away from the scene. I'm not happy!!!!

Water,water.......

......everywhere and not a drop to drink.

It seems to have been raining for weeks. The drought in New South Wales is well and truly over. According to the media, the state has 75% of its area either in flood or is flood affected, which is about the size of France. When we moved into this area, floods were more frequent and watching water levels at North Richmond bridge became quite a social event. Some years the bridge closed two or three times. When floods were imminent, phone calls would be made and I would leave work and hope to get across the bridge before it went under. On one occassion I reached the bridge just as the police were about to close it but as I was so close to home they allowed me over, following a grader with his big blade down to break the water as it flowed across the road way. In June 1974, I arrived back in Sydney to find the North Richmond bridge still closed so had to drive all the way round via Mount Victoria. A detour didn’t seem to matter having driven to Northern Queensland and back. The bridge opened the following day. We had been a little concerned about what would happen if the baby (James) came early, while I was away and the river was flooded. We were assured, no problems, the flood rescue boat would take Di across the river to a waiting ambulance.

A few years ago we were in drought conditions and were put on water restrictions as the storage capacity of Warragamba Dam, Sydneys water supply, was down to 32%. As I write this the capacity is at 98% and the forecast is that the dam will spill over some time tonight.



TV stations are here making news clips for later.




The level still has a long way to go before the bridge closes but at this stage it does rise very quickly.





Someone has been keeping records.



Its hard to imagine but we have seen the water about 7 metres above the road level.