Historic weather photos and data

I spent a little time out at the Bunker museum yesterday (28 July) with a particular focus on trying to find the dates of the 1971 floods.  These got a few mentions in the field trip to Gipsy Point Cemetery and the Genoa School Museum on 27 July.  As will be revealed below I think I have got those dates sorted, but a whole bunch of other interesting things have emerged in trying to link the photos of flooded (etc) roads I snipped with my phone.  (In some cases my images omitted the crucial dates and I have had much fun sleuthing out when the articles were written!)

While I haven't (yet) been able to get all the information I might want to comment on each image it is really quite astonishing how much weather information is around from BoM.  I primarily used rainfall data from Gabo Island and Timbillica as they have quite long series.  In a couple of cases I also checked data for Comparison sites at Sale and Orbost (which have closed, but have much longer series than the current sites).

Two takeaways from this exercise have been:

• the importance of orographic rainfall in setting up big falls (see comparisons of Timbilla and Gabo Island below); and
• The significant lags between inland rain and flooding in the Inlet or even the lower parts of the rivers draining the higher country.

The first photo is from 1928.  I have been able to get rainfall data for Gabo Island and Sale which show those stations recorded 121 mm and 176 mm respectively, going back about 2 weeks to 14 March.  In these days blessed with bitumen roads and much wider tyres I suspect that amount of rain would cause no problems.

 Plus ca change ....  From 1941.

 A handwritten note, matches very nicely with BoM records for Gabo Island  showing 226 mm over 8 and 9 February.  The 0900 cut off split the deluge!

 I found a photo of some floods in 1952 but my snap just shows the year and some water so not very interesting.  When I consulted the records for Timbillica I found a few periods of heavy rain in that year but looking at 7 day totals the highest total was 286 mm for the 13th to 19th of June.  (Gabo Island scored 202 mm over that period, showing the orographic effect of the ranges.)

Orography was evident again in 1953,  In the period leading up to this headline (5-8th May) 233 mm fell at Timbillica, 135 mm at Gabo and 108 mm at Sale.

 Here are some images of the 1971 floods.  I have a memory of that well known source "someone" saying that in town the water got to the steps of the Bakery!  Looking at the rainfall data it seems that the heaviest falls in 1971 were from January 23 (104mm at Timbillica) to 8 February (27.2mm at Timbillica).  The totals for the whole period were 470 mm (!!!) at Timbillica and 236mm at Gabo.

I am reasonably sure thext photo refers to the period to 7 November 1973 as the rainfall records (in mm) for Orbost over November 1 to 7 in that year convert to the number of points cited in this article.  Timbillica scored 126.5 mm on the 5th of November (try lighting a Guy Fawkes bonfire in that!)

I have no idea why this was said then, as I can't track down any heavy rain near the cited date.  Possibly someone smelt some spare flood relief funds blowing in the wind?

The next two images are interesting as the first matches a period of heavy rain 326mm at Timbillica from 2 -4 June 1978 ....

 .. while this one from 11 June (determined by reference to the Queens Birthday long weekend) is well after the heavy rain finished.  Perhaps the soggy country was still draining out and the storms off shore blocked the water from flowing out?  I can't find any information to support that.

This is a huge washout on the Genoa-Mallacoota Rd in December 1985.

 There hadn't been any major rain in the previous few days but again a few days earlier there had been a very heavy fall,   From 26 -29 /11/85 Timbillica had 231 mm of rain and 153  mm fell at Gabo.  Did anyone say "Orographic"?

Snow at Mallacoota!  Records of temperatures are a bit thin on the ground around that time but the Orbost Comparison site had a maximum of 8.1^oC and a minimum of 1.9 ^oC.

Responding to a post about the snow event I made on a weather forum another member of that forum commented:

"It's very possible that snow would have fallen that day in Mallacoota, but unlikely it settled. In TAS, it was the coldest and snowiest day since 1921 and has not been bettered since. Snow fell to sea level in the south and east with the Hobart City BoM observer reporting 8cm snow on ground.

The city was isolated until midday. Some interesting links:
ABC News coverage that night for TASChannel 7 news of VIC and TASA gallery of pics in and around Hobart from the Mercury

There are several lengthy and authoritative mentions of the 1986 snowfall in this paper, Climatology of cold outbreaks with snow over Tasmania. Search for "1986".

Dowell Creek revisited

As the Lilli pillies (Syzygium smithii) in Shady Gully are still covered with fruit I thought it might be worth making a second visit to Dowell Creek to check for frugivorous pigeons.  So we took off in the Pajero with some friends.  

Here is the route of our walk, starting on the Fern Gully Track.

 Yes, the Lilli Pilli were well endowed with fruit.

In some cases the top of the tree was clear of fruit and a lot was in the ground, suggesting that the fruiting season was just about over.  However, given the purpose of the visit, the key thing was that no 'special' pigeons were seen or heard.  The only evidence of columbids all visit was he call of a Wonga Pigeon - nice, but not 'special'.

We found some well designed stepping posts across a creek.

 Rain forest was available with a good array of Cyathea australis (tree ferns) in the lower layer. 

 Various bird calls were being emitted from the forest, some of them definitely from a Superb Lyrebird and some others (eg Eastern Whipbird) attributed to the Lyrebird.  Some other calls were not recognisable to me and it wasn't possible to get a look at the calling bird so they became mysteries and were omitted from the list.  It was nice to be able to track one call to a Crescent Honeyeater as it wasn't giving the classic "Egypt" call.

In the open area a Jacky Winter posed nicely.

 A couple of Red-necked Wallabies were also around and looked at us quite intently.

Getting back to the Pajero, parked in a grove of Allocasuarina littoralis, something had been munching on the cones. 

 Option A would be Glossy Black-Cockatoos but they were (unfortunately) no longer in the area.

Dropping our friends off at their house in Karbeethong they showed us a nesting White-headed Pigeon.  This resolved the question of whether they were nesting in the area.

You've got to be quick ....

.. to get good sunrise!

I noticed that there was a tinge of colour in the clouds this morning and about 5 minutes later Frances alerted me to it really colouring up.  So I grabbed the camera and drove up to the top of Angophora Drive.  The following photos start at 0650 hrs.

And finish at 0652.  Possibly in total a 5 minute window for really good colour.

Walks High and Low

With friends visiting from Canberra we did a couple of walks on the 22nd.  The first was to Genoa Peak, mainly because its there but with a faint hope of seeing Glossy Black-Cockatoos.  One of those was fulfilled: it wasn't the cockies!

As we set off from the car park I spotted a Pterostylis grandiflora beside the track.

 Glancing across to the other side of the track there was Pterostylis tunstallii.

It doesn't appear too clearly in this image but there had been an impressive lightning strike on this stringybark. A salutary reminder not to do this walk when thunderstorms are possible.

 Indeed, metal ladders on an exposed granite peak would not be good on a storm.  But hopefully showing one's support for the Saints would deflect divine wrath.

The cap seemed to work as we neither saw nor felt any electrical discharges.  In fact the view from the Peak was a little disappointing as it was very hazy.  But still not a bad look at the area.

Later in the day our second walk was though the heathland to the West of town.  The Allocasuarina nana was into flower.

 Quite a few people were walking their pooches on the beach, but the Hooded Plovers were still trotting about near tyhe estuary of the Betka River.

Coming back through the dunes we found some nice examples of Leucopogon parviflorus. According to the Flora of Victoria it is flowering a little earlier than might be expected

This was growing and flowering  on the bank of the Betka River.  Some other strollers identified it as a 'Pinkie'.  This didn't seem to help getting to the Latin.

 A couple of images of reflections in the water of a small lagoon off the river,

The walk up from the River to the heathland is often a tad boring, going through a monoculture of Melaleuca armillaris.  On this visit it was exciting to find a lot (perhaps 50 plants) of Pterostylis nutans.

 And then the first decent example of blossom on Acacia longifolia.

Captains Creek walk-through

We decided that we'd take our visiting friends on a walk though the Captains Creek area.  After parking their car at Bucklands we all piled into the Pajero and went to the parking area off Genoa Rd.

That gave us a walk of about 9km (and cunningly about a net loss of 100m in elevation)!  Here is the first stretch, to Captains Creek Jetty.

Thanks to records in the Atlas of Living Australia and the Flora of Victoria I am able to identify this bean with a flattened stem and tiny leaves as Bossiaea ensata.

 A nice spiky wattle, of which there are several possibilities.  After reviewing flower colour, seasonality and habitat I have concluded this is Acacia oxycedrus.

 This blue jobbie has me a little bluffed at present.  I suspect it is a Lobelia from the overall shape of the flowers and leaves.  The leaves in particular suggest L. dentata.

One of the eucalypts had quite a bit of blossom - sort of visible in this image - which seemed to be attracting a Crescent Honeyeater,

Again thanks to records in the Atlas of Living Australia and the Flora of Victoria I am able to attach the name Platylobium parviflorum to this bean  I'd note that the shape of the leaves was quite crucial in coming to this conclusion.

 An easy one: Hovea heterophylla.

 Another quite easy one, as the hairiness of the flowers goes straight to Leucopogon and the pink buds takes on quite quickly to L. ericoides.

This white one should be easy but currently is not cooperating!  Thanks to Brigitta I now know  it is Rhytidosporum procumbens!

 As we got close to the Captains Creek Jetty we found a very large colony (~50 plants ) of Pterostylis grandiflora.  This is certainly the most widespread of the greenhoods we have found recently.

From the Jetty we moved on towards Bucklands  (We didn't pause long at the Jetty as the mozzies were numerous, large and hungry.)

 Our first daisy: Brachyscome spathulata.

These leaves, located in the forest on the last slope down to the Inlet, have a very orchidaceous look and feel to them. The spot was marked and we'll go back in a week or so to see what has happened.

 Possibly the leaves above are another colony of Pterostylis curta.  We found  some in flower in the Narrows.

All in all that was a pretty good walk.