6am Tuesday 28/12/10 Thanks Chlidonias. Rain has stopped for now. 368mls for December to date - unheard of in this area. All access roads in the district are now cut - some will not be open for some days yet. Zoo damage has been confined to paths. African Waterhole dam still holding. Zoo closed to the public today. Off now to find a Bobcat!
Steve, I guess you may know this, The turf farms sell turf rolls that are about 2 metres wide, would it help putting a few rolls that size on top of the dam wall?
I had actually sown 10 kilos of Kikuyu seed all over the wall and it's surrounds but it had not established itself well enough to hold the erosion. The man who constructed the dam will be back again this morning to discuss restoration plans. Once these are completed, turf may well be a quicker solution. Thanks. On a side note - one good thing to come out of all this rain is that the lion enclosures are now developing a beautiful cover of Kikuyu. Our area has been in drought ever since we bought this property and I had despaired of ever having nice green lion enclosures. That is finally starting to happen.
From what I can remember those huge turf rolls come with a fine Nylon netting on the underside to hold it together,It must be just like rolling out carpet
Yes it haa! Because we had steady winter rain [also unheard of in this area] it filled steadily, allowing for the earthworks to settle. It has been full for a couple of months now. However, 200mm of rain in two days has softened all the outer wall, allowing it to erode and part of it to slide. Our engineers are applying themselves to this problem even as we speak. Just to make life even more interesting, there is a government curfew on all over width loads until January 2 thus we can't get any heavy machinery on-site until then. Life wasn't meant to be easy!!
All the best Steve, I think I may have to pay another visit once we start getting sunny days again, just to see how green it is up there.
G,day, I hope you guys and gals are safe and sound for now (and hopefully Darling Downs has escaped some of the worst flooding). Allthough, I suppose for the ponds and the general vegetation status it will be a great asset *** Best wishes and take care! K.B. (@Mark sent pm .... meant Queensland not NSW, mea maxima culpa)
Thanks K.B. The worst seems to be over - for now. Our main access road to Brisbane is still closed by washaways, landslides, fallen trees and water over the road. This has had a negative effect on post-Christmas business but life goes on. Thanks MARK for setting K.B straight on which State we are in. Much more of this rain and we could be developing webbed feet and could thus be mistaken for Tasmanians!
I am glad the worst is over ... I hope the water affluence does some good to the vegetation cover before long. As to geography lessons: Mark did not set me straight, I corrected it here publicly before he probably read my e-mail/pm note. Still I am apt to admit a mistake ..., shows the bloke here is human after all
Hi Steve, I don't really know you, and haven't visited your Zoo as yet, but just wanted to say I hope you, your family & your animals are OK with all the rain & torrential flooding in your neck of the woods! I can't believe that Toowoomba which is basically on top of a mountain has been deluged with water! -Angela
Thank you so much Angela. We thought that we were doing it tough until we saw the TV footage from Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley. Unbelievable. Although our paths have suffered yet again we are counting our blessings. Our animals and their enclosures as well as my family and our home are all safe and sound. We have much to be thankful for.
Just spoke to my mum in Ipswich and she said you have had some water,so glad to hear that your heads are above it.I think I will need to buy and pack a surf board for coming home.All that swimming training will be useful after all.Again glad your family is safe. Cheers ay
G'day mate, Thanks for that. This will not be our best holiday season but at least we are all OK. Ipswich is in the line of the floods right now. A wall of water up to 7 metres high went down Lockyer Creek this arvo and will hit the Bremer River tonight. Our mutual friend CW was here on Saturday but flew back to work at Al Ain today. He sure knew when to leave town!! See you in March. Cheers.
Very, very good Mr F! Possibly the ZooChat post of the year to date! You were part of our conversation over the weekend - all good, of course!
