coopers creek/lake eyre water levels

Enough to put the Murray in big Flood I reckon by August. Its only the start of the wet season. No big cyclones yet.

Hi Mazcan

I can not get my full details from the DTEI until early February.

What I can tell you from my next best and very reliable source is from the people who Manage Etadunna Station, where the Cooper Cuts the Birdsville Track. I caught up with Jason last week and he said that the water level over the road was dropping quite well to the fact they are now able to drive over the flooded section with station vehicles. Jason said that there were a couple of very boggy sections still under water and that if any tourist tried to drive through they would get hopelessly bogged.

They have not received any of the Queensland water yet and he knows that there is a very substantial body coming down (Jason would prefer no water at all, as they are about to start fishing on Lake Hope for the commercial markets, and part of the Government regulations is that they can only do so when there is no water inflow into Lake Hope.

I have also just heard from an ex member who paid a visit up there after Christmas and has been told that the next lot of water could see the Track until October 2011.

The moment that I have my report from the DTEI I will post it.



Cheers


Stephen

Hi Maz, alas for the LEYC the well publicised Rocky and St George floods are emptying into the Coral Sea and the Darling respectively and not a drop will flow into SA. However for the last month there has been flooding on the Cooper due to heavy rains in December. Windorah has only today fallen back to a moderate flood. See pic and links below.
At Cullyamurra Waterhole at Innamincka the Cooper is about 1 metre over the causeway and flowing at 4000 megalitres a day. This has to keep Coongie Lakes topped up and lots will evaporate but before Xmas the report was that the water level at the Cooper Creek Ferry had gone up 150mm. Pix on the LEYC site show much lees water in Lake Eyre - it's all evaporating. $000ML is just a drop in the bucket compared to the Balonne at St George which hit 290, 000ML/day
There's still plenty of time left for the Wet to deliver another dump to the Cooper catchment. What's already downstream of Windorah will be subject to intense heat and evaporation but enough will get through to keep the ferry operating till winter. It will beat a year if it goes past June 8th. Link to Qld flood map at BoM here:
http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/flood/index.shtml
Cheers, WarrieImage Could Not Be FoundImage Could Not Be Found