The state of the Inlet (or outlet)

 On our morning walks in the last two days it has been noticeable that the level of the Inlet has dropped a fair bit.  It is exemplified by the state of the Broome St Lagoon.

For the past two weeks (at least when we have been there) the water level has been over all the mud exposed in this image and close to the top of the samphire.

Rather than rely on such 'vernacular' measures I went to check the level on the gauge at the wharf.  On 2 September that was at zero (ie the bottom of the gauge) while a week ago it was at 0.4m.  I have checked the gauge a few times since the Inlet was last opened as shown in this chart.

The lines for depth and rainfall in the last 60 days are reasonably consistent apart from the last couple of observations.  

As I can understand it when I checked on 25 August there had been relatively little rain in the previous 60 days but a strong Southerly wind was blowing probably driving water into the Bottom Lake.  By 2 September, although we had had heavy recent rain a very strong Northerly wind was blowing likely to be pushing water out of the Inlet.  A further effect was possibly that the tide was higher when I visited on the 25th.

After checking the gauge I went to Captain Stevenson's Point where much exposed sand was visible across the nearby parts of the Inlet.  Looking at the opening it is obvious that sand bars are building up on the inland side of the opening.

As BoM is forecasting ~50 mm of rain at Mallacoota (about 30 mm for Bombala at the head of the Genoa River) for the weekend there may be enough outflow to keep the mouth open for the immediate future.

Later on 3 September we went for a walk up the Narrows.  Water levels were also low there (this image taken on the rebuilt bridge about 900m from the car park).