Lake Eyre's waters bring dead centre to life

[depakid]

IT began as a monsoonal deluge in distant Queensland, flooding the channel country, isolating towns, and filling rivers and creeks that have not run for years. Now it's here, at Lake Eyre.

This is the moment of magic when the flood empties into Australia's dead centre, bringing life to a parched and pearly expanse of saltpan that is mostly devoid of it, and hope to communities that have endured more than their share of drought. With his eagle-eye view from the cockpit of his charter plane, pilot Trevor Wright has been tracking the advance of the torrent for the past fortnight, as anticipation grew of its arrival yesterday at Lake Eyre.

The vast, salt-encrusted basin is the end of the line for the floods that have spread devastation across north and central Queensland, and now northern NSW, providing a poignant counterpoint to the misery unleashed on Victoria by the deadly Black Saturday bushfires. The flood's headwaters have taken nearly a month to wend their way south from Queensland, along the swollen Diamantina and Georgina rivers, through the veined tracts of channel country straddling the state border, before reaching this corner of desert in South Australia, 700km north of Adelaide.

Last week, the waters filled Goyders Lagoon, about an hour's flying time in Mr Wright's Cessna from Lake Eyre. Then, they reached bone-dry Warburton Creek, pushing forward at a rate of up to 40km a day. Finally, yesterday, the flood spilled into Lake Eyre, a finger of greenish water shimmering in the heat haze against the vanilla shell of the dry lake bottom.

Pelicans, gulls and terns have followed in such prodigious numbers they could be clouds in the bleached sky. Camels, drawn by the scent of open water, have come down from the Simpson Desert. Soon, Lake Eyre will live up to its name, spawning yellow-bellied fish and fingerlings for the birdsto feast on. The 9690sqkm basin, which at 15m below sealevel is the lowest point in Australia, has filled to brimming only three times since it was first sighted by Europeans 160 years ago, and it has been a very long time between drinks for locals waiting for this drought to break.

Mr Wright, who works for a charter service out of William Creek, population three, the nearest settlement to Lake Eyre, said he hadn't seen such a volume of water hit the lake since 2000, when it was half full. "What you are seeing now is all the floodwater out of Queensland," Mr Wright said yesterday, flying The Australian over the soon-to-be transformed saltpan. "This is where it all ends up. What a wonderful sight."

More: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25103383-2702,00.html

See also:

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http://www.sail-world.com/USA/The-Worlds-strangest-yacht-club-to-sail-again/54354

[XemaSab]

1. Cool!

I bet the birding is EPIC! :D

[depakid]

2. One of the best birding events on the planet

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