Well, what a lovely wet day we had – we saw 120 mm of rain in our gauge and all of it soaking into the land nicely as the creek barely hit the bridges.
No pictures this time, sadly, as we weren’t around, but I thought I would record the stats.

The low bridge had just a little bit of water over it around 6pm and the 4th bridge was ankle deep, but moving very fast.
I visited the low bridge around 3 and it was well below on the downside but almost over on the upside – those little pipes under the bridge just aren’t up to a full flood and severely impact the performance of the bridge in times of high water.

I’m not sure what to make of these numbers – there was well over 100 ml in our gauge, but the gauges at Mt Glorious and down near Private Albert Thistlethwaite Bridge on Mt Samson Rd clearly didn’t see the rain that we did.

If we have more rain we will see the bridges under, as everything is now wet through and water will run off and hit the creek. If we go dry again, we should be fine for transport.

This morning, Mayor Sutherland was on @612brisbane (612 ABC) and seemed to think that all the flood repairs were complete on Cedar Creek Rd. Listen here: 612 breakfast link

Therefore, in order to help him, I’ve taken the following illustrative photographs.

Plastic fencing which washes away with every flood is all we have for a guard rail on the approach to this bridge since 2011.

The guard rail on this bridge was torn from its supports in the 2011 floods and since then we have had a series of temporary plastic fences acting as a railing. This must be the 4th one by now, as they get washed down the creek every time this bridge floods (usually 1 to 2 times per year).

The bent guardrail and debris.

One local resident near this bridge has stated that they feel the current lack of aesthetics of the bridge are to blame for the slowness of sale of their property.

Detail of the erosion under the bridge/road surface.

On the other end of the bridge, the floodwaters have eroded some of the bridge and road support. This was patched extensively after the 2011 floods, but washed out on the next flood.

Guard rail damage on the right, and erosion under the road surface on the left.

Overview of the entire bridge from the down-creek side.

No stabilisation works have been completed on this bank since the subsidence was cleared. This section of road also was left out of the resurfacing after the floods.

This embankment collapsed in the 2011 floods and covered most of the road. Many months after the road was cleared (see previous blog entries), the embankment was marked for stabilisation work, but those marks are now lost under yet more erosion. While Mr Sutherland was indeed correct about extensive road resurfacing, this section of road was not. The edges are in poor repair and require patching whenever we get decent rains.

It should also be noted that the road re-surfacing, while indeed covering 95% of the length of the road, was the low quality finish known as ‘spray and sprinkle’. While it has held through the long dry summer most recent, it is already showing problems with only one heavy rain. Its probably going to turn out to be what the locals call ‘a waste of money’ when potholes show up along the length of it with the rains now arriving.

Recent rains have caused further erosion on the bank above the road. Note the large stone in the foreground.

As you can see, recent rains have dug large gouges in the embankment and caused sizeable rocks to fall. The barriers are so far holding those back, but we do wonder for how long before another large landslip blocks the only road in and out of this beautiful area.

The school bus has come through so most cars should be able to cross the Kirk Lane bridge – even the bridge near Massey Creek Court bridge looks passable.

9AM update:

Click the image to see the current creek height

The creek peaked over 3m, so the green bridge did go under.

Overall, the whole road is showing branch fall and leaf litter – it was heavy rain that did that ‘cleaning’ thing that its supposed to do.

The first bridge at Halls Rd is clear of water, as you’d expect, although a little dirty.

The low bridge at Kirks Lane still has a little water running over it, but is easily passable. As usual, slow right down to cross water.

The green bridge is clear of water but has a fair amount of dirt on it, so slow down. Hopefully council will send a grader through to clear it soon. The plastic bollards, those so resilient boundary markers that have been decorating this bridge since 2011, have washed away again, but there isn’t obvious sign of new damage.

The 4th bridge, at Masseys Creek Court, is still running but should be passable.

I haven’t been up to the 5th bridge yet, but it should be clear of water as it is quite high.

We had the heaviest rain in Brisbane, I’d say – BOM says Mt Glorious had 216 mm between 9am yesterday and 6am this morning and lower Cedar Creek had 164mm. Thats a heap of rain! Here in upper Cedar Creek, our rain gauge says we had at least 230mm – thats starting to approach 2011 flood level of rain!

(Click the image to see the current rainfall)

Here are some quick and dirty photos from the road this morning:

The 4th bridge had a log over it at 6am – it was gone by 7:30, so I guess some one moved it?

The low bridge still had good flow at 6am, but it was passable by 4WD.

Water on the low bridge. It almost looks pretty! 😉

Debris clogging up the infrastructure. Does council come clear this? or does it just rot away?

The Green Bridge has a layer of silt over it, as is normal after running water washes over a structure. Its passable by sedan.

Amazing! Mt Glorious has had 133 ml so far, and 98 have been recorded at lower Cedar Creek.

Click the image to see the current rainfall – note the ‘Rainfalls Since 9am’ option

and in other news, the creek has peaked and will be falling, provided the rain doesn’t pick up more – cross your fingers everyone! Apparently Kirk Rd is crossable by 4WD and very game driver right now, anyway 🙂

It has been more than 12 months since our last flood event – that shows how dry it has been!
As I sit here writing, I can hear the rain pouring down outside, but we nipped down to the bridge while it was a bit lighter and got some photos.

A heavy cell is passing over and water is rising rapidly. I think we will be cut off soon, but it will go down as soon as the rain stops, presumably tomorrow.

(click the image to visit BOM and see the current graph)

Discussion at the Facebook group for the area.

The rain has stopped, apart from the odd flurry and the causeways are quite passable now – there is only a small flow over them that is fordable by any vehicle.

Heck, I think a bicycle could cross no problem, but I don’t claim to know anything about bicycles 🙂

The low bridge is at 40cm and not passable by sedan – hope you got in while the getting was good!

The rain seems to be slowing, so it may go back down later this evening.

Stay safe, everyone!

We have only had some 10 ml overnight (although its sprinkling again now) and the creek has dropped a lot – it should be passable for most vehicles.

But be ready to make a fast run home if the rain starts again!

I’m going to try and get my weekly grocery shopping done before it goes back up!

I hope you’re all enjoying these photos today, sitting inside, perhaps with a warm cup of cocoa, while we go out and brave the slightly cool and wet. (Actually I stayed home for this one. Our eldest was hoping to get out for an evening class, so Dave went down in the Prado to see if it was crossable. Its not. But I stayed dry. Muahahaha*coughcough*)

The fourth bridge is under and will be for a while, as is normal – it is first to go under and last to come down.

The low bridge is still under, but has dropped 20cm, so not much longer people waiting to come in and go home.

and here’s an arty panoramic shot of the low bridge:

The amount of water running across the intersection of Kirks Lane and Cedar Creek Rd is doing damage – its always a flood here, you don’t go down to take photos of the low bridge from this side without either gumboots, or the expectation of getting very wet feet. There should really be a sizeable pipe under this intersection, and the potholes that have opened up show this.

And, to soothe your mind from that worry (impassable roads after flooding is always a scary thought), here’s a beautiful image to make you go ‘Ahhhh…’:

Don’t you wish everything were that pretty?

But, unless the rain starts again, we should all be able to get in and out pretty soon, as the creek has turned:

(Click the image to see the current creek height)

(Although that wet stuff has starting coming down yet again, so it may repeak… grrr!)

We took some really poor quality of the cliff edge near the Green Bridge.
Its not very exciting, but I thought people might like to see what this unstable surface does during a downpour.

I always wonder if this will be the rain where the entire cliff edge lets go. I guess not this time – it usually looks a lot worse during rain than the above.