Friday 10th October
There was a shower about 4.30am and at 6.00am all looked OK. Heading out over the bar at 8.00am the team and I were in radio contact discussing what they could see from the wall. It did not look good from where I was. It seemed that when a set came through which was about every two or three minutes, the whole bar would close out with white water.
The photos you see are taken a few hundred metres inside the river so you will understand why I turned around and headed back to the boat ramp. The chances of making it were probably just better than 50%. If I hadn't made it through the bar it would have been bad. There was a strong run out tide and who knows where I would have ended up. At the Murray mouth I did have a go and got what I deserved. Maybe I am getting older and wiser.
Plan B was to lower the wheels and walk down the beach. This went well as the tide was still running out but was quite low. Unfortunately I could not make Evans Head before the tide got too high, so when that happened the guys came and picked me up and we retired to do some repair work. While I was waiting it seemed like a good idea to try land sailing. If you look closely you can see the steering ropes to the paddle. Unfortunately you need a lot of wind with such a small sail so the idea needs developing.
We are now waiting for the tide to drop and will continue down the beach to Evans Head tonight.
The magazine, Water Engineering, printed an appalling article on the dam which most engineers received in the mail yesterday. This is what we have been waiting for. It is so obviously bad, such sloppy or propaganda journalism, that I think they have overplayed their hand this time. After poking them in the nose a few times, I thought they might attack me and I was looking forward to it. They may still do that. The tactic to have a "professional" evening, and then get someone as lazy or pro-dams as the editor of Water Engineering to publish it, probably seemed clever to them. But, to any thinking engineer who was at both Engineers Australia meetings, it is obvious what they are, and what they have to resort to. The article should blow the situation wide open and may even contribute to a new government next year. This is just my opinion though!
What is not just my opinion, is that Graeme Newton and Lee Benson (see article) were major players in the Paradise Dam which is now subject to court action over its failure to achieve adequate fish transfer. People like this should hang their heads in shame but they won't. Will Queenslanders finally understand what these guys do? Will the average person eventually say that they have had a gut full, that Traveston Crossing Dam, Paradise Dam, Cubbie Station and the like, have no place in Queensland; that we are smarter than that? Or are we? We will see. I would bet that we are smarter, that we do value the land and its waterways for our grandchildren, and that people who are destroying these will be exposed and stopped.
Day 7 Photos
What a rig!
With Craig Zerk
Turning around
So that's why I was wet
Retreating up the river
Departure Plan B
There is always someone to talk to