Just add water: Eildon loving its inflows
Darren Gray
July 5, 2011
WATER is being released from Lake Eildon for flood mitigation for the first time in almost 20 years, as the man-made lake climbs steadily towards 100 per cent capacity.
The releases started last Thursday, at the rate of about 1000 megalitres per day, but have been more than doubled since because of rising inflows. The water is in addition to minimum daily environmental releases for river health.
Mark Bailey from Goulburn-Murray Water said the flood mitigation releases were going into the AGL hydro power plant, before flowing into the Goulburn River where they would have only a marginal impact.
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The water level is nearing the treeline on the banks, bringing water to areas that had been exposed for years, Dr Bailey said. ''It looks fantastic. To see the level as high as it is after the best part of 15 years at very low levels, and getting down to as low as 6 per cent in May 2007, it is remarkable to see the recovery and how healthy it looks.''
Dr Bailey, acting manager water resources, said the lake was 87.8 per cent full. The mass of water meant vast areas were available for recreation, while towns and irrigators had improved water security.
Recent inflows and long-term inflow records suggested the water would keep rising strongly over coming months. ''We are 95 per cent confident we will fill the storage,'' he said.
''We can release some water now to provide a balance between making sure we fill, and providing that degree of flood protection,'' he said.
A full lake holds a massive 3,334,158 megalitres, making it six times the size of Sydney Harbour. Dr Bailey attributes the level to ''extremely low'' water use last year by irrigators and to ''really good inflows''.
Water Minister Peter Walsh said Eildon's high level was good news for irrigators. ''It means we've got a number of years now where people can be confident they'll have a full irrigation allocation,'' he said.
''It's great to see all the storages with water in them again, having been so low over the past decade.''
The rising water is luring anglers and holiday-makers. Kathy Octigan, co-owner of the Bonnie Doon Caravan Park, said that at the height of the drought the water was 10 kilometres from her home. But today it's much closer. ''It's less than a minute's walk from the back door of my house,'' she said.
''It is just lovely. It's made a huge difference to spring and summer bookings just gone, and the coming spring and summer bookings this year,'' she said. Her caravan park is fully booked from Boxing Day to about January 10 next year.
''I would say September school holidays will be absolutely chockers, because that's when the weather has turned better. And the lake always reaches its peak around September-October.''
David Roff, chief executive of Mansfield Shire, said a full Lake Eildon generated a lot of economic activity. ''It's a real good driver,'' he said.
An amazing milestone. It's taken longer that expected to get there due to the higher outflows to mitigate a spill although you would think that this is inevitable at some stage.
Went up there last week to the Wall, looks amazing, almost unrecognisable to what we're used to. There's barely anything left of Alliance boat ramp! Parking's going to be madness up there this season.
Wow. 90..
Hard to believe, although was shocked to see how much had risen in previous visit compared to 6 weeks prior. " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Some Vid from uppahill, when it flicks back at the start its the WS.
I must get some tips on taking vid's.
It was the first time my son (3) made it to the top without being carried or piggybacked,
kinda a huge achievement I think for a 3 year old, its one big hill.
Love it too Blackie.
The wildlife in that short walk was amazing.
Nankeen Krestle, Scarlet robbins, flocks of tiny finch, ? some sort of eagles couldn't quiet see them this time,
wallaby with baby lazing in the sun, 40 plus kangaroo's along with all the common birds.
Massive snow gum at the top, Absolute amazing spot, just so darn steep.
Photo's still to be processed one day.
Re Eildon spilling 2,000 ML/day for flood mitigation, its interesting that far smaller Lake Glenmaggie on the McAllister R catchment is currently spilling 6,000 ML/day to achieve the same purpose! (minor flood level is 7,500 ML/day - but looks impressive at Maffra at the moment!).
Eildon's been releasing much more than 2,000 meg/day lately. More like the 6000 at the moment, last week when I was there it was up around the 10000meg range. The Goulburn's absolutely raging, higher than many of us have seen it. One day last week it rose even further, in fact. The bank was impassable which is not common at all.
From lakeeildon.com:
readings taken at 9am wednesday the 20th july
lake eildon is at 286.38m or 2.52m below full
this is an increase of 40mm over the past 24 hours
No, no, no Petros! You're right, it was only miniscule amounts up until recently. There were a few decent releases for a period before the Queens Birthday, then it went right down again, but has shot up again in recent weeks
My son keeps looking at the (treacherous, racing, death defying in my eyes) rapids and wanting to go down in his kayak. Ummmmm, how does NO sound, son?
Lily wrote:No, no, no Petros! You're right, it was only miniscule amounts up until recently. There were a few decent releases for a period before the Queens Birthday, then it went right down again, but has shot up again in recent weeks
My son keeps looking at the (treacherous, racing, death defying in my eyes) rapids and wanting to go down in his kayak. Ummmmm, how does NO sound, son?
OK Lily, make a prediction1: 1. He will never paddle down there 2. He will paddle down there next year 3. He will paddle down there in 5+ years time?
He will paddle down there when there is NO water being released from the pondage (preferably during summer when there's only a dribble coming out of Snobs)
LOL, no, in all seriousness, I have no problem with him going in there but definitely not when it's like it is at the moment. One day last week the rapids were all but submerged! The amount of water coming out through the rapids is challenging even for the experienced kayakers, so I'm afraid my little bloke is going to have to wait for releases to reduce back down again before he'll be hopping in.
Yes Strato hard to say what GMW will do if that part of the NE gets the 50 mm plus models are forecasting. If that sort of rain falls downstream of the lake, the Goulburn will already be swollen and letting out additional lake water will exacerbate that. Ground is very wet up that way after 30-50mm in the first week of August.