NSW: Mid North Coast floods follow record rain

River height graphs for the Orara River at Glenreagh (above) and the Bellinger River at Thora (below). BoM

The torrential rain reported yesterday on the Mid North Coast continued overnight. As the surface trough responsible for the rain weakened today, rain eased off during the mid to late morning in the Bellinger and Orara catchments and later in the afternoon in the Kalang and Nambucca catchments. Floodwaters receded on Wednesday 28th. It is the fourth time this year that flooding has affected the Mid North Coast, and the State Emergency Services (SES) estimates that around 1500 residents were isolated by floodwaters.

On 29 October, the NSW State Government declared the Nambucca and Bellingen Shires disaster areas. The disaster declaration provides a range of assistance for residents, councils and business owners who have suffered property damage. Councils in particular have suffered damage to infrastructure, especially roads, bridges, causeways, culverts and water bores.

Early estimates by Nambucca Shire General Manager, Michael Coulter, are a damage bill of at least $2m which will be added to $17m worth of outstanding repairs from other recent floods. He said the flood in the upper reaches of the river on Tuesday was bigger than the April and May floods. One bridge alone, Johns Bridge at Missabotti, will cost $1.2m to replace. There have also been some major private losses. A large vegetable farm in the Nambucca Valley lost 30,000 tomato plants for the third time this year when the Bowraville farm was submerged under two metres of water on Tuesday.

Bellingen Shire estimates its losses at $300,000 coming on top of $18m accumulated infrastructure damage from the earlier floods in February, March and May. Some of the damage sustained in today's flooding had only just been repaired from the previous floods.

The highest official rainfall totals in the 24 hours to 9am were in the headwaters of the Kalang and Nambucca rivers where Spicketts Creek (Noonannie) registered 398.6mm, Bowra Sugarloaf 345.0 and Kalang (Sharabel) 342.0. Of the flood warning (non-official) rainfall stations, Crystal Creek, about 15km north of Bellingen, had the highest total of 409mm. None of these stations has a long enough set of observations to show up in the records section below, but Coffs Harbour Airport, Woolgoolga and Bellbrook all recorded their heaviest one-day October falls in long rainfall histories. Bellbrook's 117.0mm was its heaviest October fall in 118 years, beating the previous 85.9mm set back in 1927. Woolgoolga's 171.0mm was its heaviest in 108 years (154.9 in 1904). Coffs Harbour Airport Met Office recorded 146.6mm, the heaviest for October since the station opened 53 years ago. Other records are shown below and full details of rainfall are in wettest below.

Bellinger River: The heaviest rain in the Bellinger River basin continued to fall in the headwaters of Never Never Creek to the north of the town of Bellingen. Here, Crystal Creek recorded 399mm between 3pm yesterday and noon today, with the heaviest hourly totals of 38, 38, 20, 57, 43 and 44mm reported successively between 5 and 11pm last night. Because the heaviest floodwaters entered the main river just above Bellingen, near moderate flooding was experienced in Bellingen and below while the upper catchment, including the gauge at Thora, only just reached minor flood levels. The Bellinger at Thora peaked at 2.96m at 1pm today then began falling, but a further burst of local heavy rain late this afternoon and evening pushed the river over the 3.0m minor flood level to peak around 3.2m about 3am Wednesday. The Bellinger at Bellingen peaked just below 6.0m (which is moderate flood level) around 3am today. The town was cut off from the Pacific Hwy with Waterfall Way flooded, and access was cut between Bellingen and North Bellingen with the Lavenders Bridge under water.

Orara River: Glenreagh peaked around 6.8m (moderate flood level 7.0m) about 9pm today.

Kalang River: Torrential rain continued without a break from 2pm yesterday to 4pm today, though it eased to merely moderate or heavy for a few hours late morning before continuing until mid afternoon. At Spicketts Creek (Noonannie), the heaviest periods of rain were 128mm between 4 and 9pm yesterday, 170mm between midnight and 4am today, and 59mm between 10am and 1pm. About 500 people may have been isolated around Kalang according to the SES with the only access, Moody's Bridge, under water.

Nambucca River: Bowra Sugarloaf flood gauge in the upper catchment recorded 458mm falling as steady, heavy rain between 3pm yesterday and 6pm today, after which rain eased. Due to a possible problem with the gauge or telecommunications at Bowraville - shown as a gap in the Bureau of Meteorology flood graph between noon and 9pm -- the time and level of the peak there are not known for certain. A Bureau flood warning gave the peak as "near 10m about 5pm" while a reading of 9.96m and rising at 2.36pm supports this. Major flood level at Bowraville is 10.0m. Roads into Bowraville (population 980) were cut with all low-level bridges under water, isolating the town and about 70 people in the area. The river peaked at 1.6m at Macksville, 0.5m lower than expected and 0.1m below minor level. Up to 100 people around north Macksville were isolated.

WA: Record high temperatures in the south. The trough shown on the charts below extending from Broome to offshore Perth ducted hot air into southern WA for the third day in a row, giving overnight minima 4 to 10 above average and daytime maxima up to 12 above the norm. In the state's far southwest, some long-standing records for hot nights fell. Bridgetown, Pemberton, Manjimup and Donnybrook all recorded their highest October minimum temperatures in over 50 years of record - see records for the details. When the trough finally moved through this morning it brought thunderstorms and heavy rain, giving many locations across the Central Wheatbelt 10 to 20mm of rain in an hour or less shortly before 9 this morning. Amery Acres recorded 29.0mm, its heaviest October one-day fall in 47 years, while Waeel and Cunderdin also set new records.

QLD: Savage storms hit Capella. Capella, 50km NNW of Emerald in the Central Highlands, has been savaged by two major thunderstorms, one yesterday afternoon and one today. Yesterday's storm dropped 40mm of rain and hail, while wind caused considerable tree damage. This was being cleared today when a second storm struck, dropping 97.4mm in the Post Office gauge with further hail and strong winds. With many drains still clogged from the previous day's storm debris, there was main street business flooding in addition to damage sustained by the golf club, aquatic centre, Bridgeman Park and Peak Downs Community Hall.