No Swimming or Watercraft!
The levels in Lake Samsonvale have dropped so dramatically that this sign now looks quite out of place as there isn't any water as far as the eye can see.
Pretty much all of the low land you see here is meant to be under water.
View all photos taken: Sunday, 3rd December 2006, This photo: 11:39am
Goodness - quite amazing.
So when was the last time that these signs might have had some relevance ?
There's an interesting fact sheet about the area's three main dams (not including Lake Kurwongbah, which is next to this one and run by the Pine Shire council rather than SE Qld Water) here: www.seqwater.com.au/files/pdf/KeyDamStatistics.pdf
However, I can't find any historical water level stats. I know Wivenhoe has been at full capacity at least once (it opened in 1985, so obviously sometime after that). I would guess that the last time this area had water in it would have been somewhere around 1999ish....
This page www.seqwater.com.au/content/standard.asp?name=DamOperatio... has levels data on it, but it doesn't go back that far :(
Well judging by that graph, I reckon it might have had significant water levels around Apr/May 2004.
Yep, which was caused by that humungous rain we had then, if you remember!
Interesting how long it took for the dam to fill - IIRC the rain was late feb, but its mid-march before it stopped going up. Perhaps I misremember how long it rained for.
Interesting that they claim that people are saving water well - if you look at the graph there isn't a significant reduction in the rate of fall.
Last summer's rain appears to have only matched the outgoings.
(Can you tell I love graphs? ;))
Another point I found interesting in the stats was that the evaporation rate for Wivenhoe is greater than the average rainfall. Did they not take that into account before choosing that location ????
Hmm - sounds like not very good planning !!!
I think you've summed up the South East Queensland Water Board in that one simple sentence David.