Harold Flett, The Buloke Times

So Donald had a well above average total of rainfall in the Spring of 2022.

Official rainfall records inform us of 365mm for the months of August through to end of November. That is a considerable amount of rain in four months, resulting in many flooded roads, crops and a decent “run” down our local Richardson River. To put those four months in perspective, remember that the long term average for 12 months has dropped to just under 400 mm – note that is for twelve months!

The first real chance to have our town levees challenged since the erection of them in the years following the “one in a hundred” flood of January 2011.

Before the Richardson rose and put Camp Street underwater, the Buloke Shire outdoor staff had a practice run at erecting the bolt in/drop in barrier adjacent to the Goodwin Village. The exercise put it up, then pulled it down, quickly! Only a short time later it was erected again, and the earthen barrier across Camp Street was also installed – to FULL levy height – above January 2011 flood height. The flood which inundated homes and businesses, and had water on the road at the intersection of Woods and Hammill Streets, had not happened since midwinter of 1909.

Let’s get the 2010/11 floods in perspective. The year 2010 was certainly one for the record books! In the last five months of 2010 Donald’s official recording of rain shows 469.8mm, and had a tendency to fall in two day events totaling about 50mm – or over two inches for those who better understand the old scale! So the Richardson flooded Camp Street in September 2010, and again in early December 2010.

The first 14 days of January 2011 Donald’s official recording was another 187.6mm – so 657.4mm since the start of August in 2010. (Old scale – just short of 26 inches – 25.88”.) So it was we received our “one in a hundred” flood, isolating those west of the Richardson from the body of the town of Donald.

OK! Let’s turn our focus back to late 2022, when the Richardson covered Camp Street for a few days, and we had a “Flood meeting” in the Memorial Hall. There was concern in some quarters about the October 2022 flood increasing to January 2011 height – thankfully completely unfounded. Once again, let’s put the river levels in perspective.

In October 2022 our famed Bullock did not get a drink, missing out by roughly 40mm. Let’s compare that to 14th January, 2011, when the tip of his horn was all that was showing. So the peak of the 2011 flood was a whopping 790mm above October 2022. – for the “old school”, that’s more than 2 ft. 6 inches depth of river water!

At the Donald flood meeting the Bureau of Meteorology espoused La Nina continuing into Autumn 2023, with “large rainfall events” every couple of weeks. They have been wrong before, and they were wrong then. The farming community breathed a sigh of relief, and got into harvest! The last rain over 25mm in one event was 13th-14th November, 2022.

In January 2011, I can remember a conversation with the late Oliver Guthrie, who lived on the banks of the Richardson at Rich Avon. We had had 100mm in three days to the morning of the 12th, and his words in regard to the coming flood were, “We’re in for a big one!” The next two days yielded another 87.6mm – and he was proven to be correct!

In light of my long term interest in our rainfall, and memories back to at least the 1956 flood, I trust the above may add weight to the thought of removing the Camp Street earthen levee.

This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 21 February 2023.