The Betka lets rip .. eventually

This post will end up with the Betka River self isolating but begins with what has led to that situation, which is rain.  Over the night of 23-24 June we got a surprising dump of rain.  There have been a number of reports to the Facebook pages suggesting that this was due to squalls passing on the Western edge of the town.  I come to that conclusion, in part based on the BoM airport getting 38 mm, home 28 mm and BoM Gabo Island 5 mm.

The pattern of falls over the night is shown in this chart of cumulative falls.

The squally nature is shown by considering the amount and rate of rainfall at my site over the 8 hours .  Note the different scales.

I had noted the previous day that the Betka River was on the brim.  So I went down at 0800 to check the situation.  It was still on the brim.

Obviously waves had been breaking over during the night.

The walking track on the far side of the road was well flooded.  It doesn't need an authoritarian sign from Parks or EGSC to say that.

On the way home the boardwalk on the Chip Track was still missing in action.

I also checked the gauge in the Inlet, mainly to get an impression of when the run off from the rain gets here.  It had risen a tad under 0.4 cm in the last week (say 390 Olympic Pools). 

There was a thought that the high tide mid-morning might cause a breakout, but the image at 1500 hrs says "No.".

However the tide was 0.3 m higher at 2230.  A community member visited at around that time and found it to be running well!   So I took myself down there at 0700.

Yesterday the water was lapping at the orange fence.

Looking back to the parking lot.

Some attractive rocks are exposed.

So are some former fish.  I saw a couple like this flopping around in small pools and flicked them into the River.  I hope to get an ID through iNaturalist.org but Bryce Watts-Parker has suggested Flathead Gudgeon

This is definitely an Eastern Sea Garfish (Hyporhamphus australis).

Later in the day, another former fish found tangled in the Eel grass washed out of the Estuary.  That one is a Silver Trevally.

Here is the Eel grass.

An exposed rock on the beach ...

And a close up showing the contrasting colours of the eel grass and the rock

The exposed mud in the River was attracting a lot of gulls and terns and 17 Bar-tailed Godwits.  Here are two of them.

As I got to the top of Angophora Drive in the morning, the sun was finding its way over the Howe Range.