Stories From The Hunter

[Tony]

I have had in interesting time

I was working at Aston coal north of singleton on friday.

Started work at sunup in pouring rain, was soaked to the skin by 9am running around helping commission new plant.

At about midday my brother rang me from muswelbrook......... "where are you" he asked.

"AHton coal, why?"

Get in your car and go home..... NOW! he said, i just came through muswelbrook form Bengalla mine and i saw caravans fleating across the golf course. The mines are shutting down and they are closing down muswelbrook too.

Oh **** i thought, I was on site working with the boss I went and told the boss what i had just been told. He ran it through his head for a few seconds, went and looked out the switchrooms door, frowned and said...... "you piss off home and ring me with a road report as you go"

Wasnt long and i was in the bumper to bumper stream of trafic heading out of the fast flooding valley.

I got to branxton and hit the plug of traffic, and got a phone call....... the roads closed.

****!

I was stopped accross from the intersection that heads down the back way through pokolbin, past bluetounge brewery.

Ahhhhhh im in a company car so over the medium strip i went (crunch bang squeel) along with a few followers and onto an adventure or water course driving in a ford falcon we went

I got home safe, 2 1/4 hrs for a 45 min drive.

i got home to find all the water from all the houses up the hill from me was funning into my pool, down the back steps and out under the fence.

My pool now looks like a muddy dam.

here are some pics. some of my pool, during the rain and after and my trip home (camera phone pics on the move)

cheers

 

[Weizguy]

Struggled down to the dungeon/swamp tonight. Rescued several bottles from underwater, including 3 bottles of the Murray's Anniversary ale (10% - barleywine) and decided to drink one. I'm about half way through it and thought that I should post b4 I can't no longer.

...and the taste? and the taste, my boy...it's balanced and roasty, hoppy, toffeeish and bitter, and of course, alcoholic. Smells of caramel, malt and fruitty hop.

Pix will be going to the "What's in the glass thread", as soon as I can get the camera to talk to the PC.

Seth

BTW, went belly up in the swamp on my way out (sober) after tripping over an obstacle. You would have laughed. I didn't...was cold and filthy :blink:

 

[goatherder]

Awesome pics TD - that's a serious failure in the dam. I hope the damage isn't too costly.

Nice pics Tony. I managed to get out of work (near Muswellbrook) early on Friday so I avoided all the traffic you got.

I gott out and took some pics around the area yesterday and this morning. Mostly just flooded farmland and cut roads thankfully. The locals haven't lost much more than fences.

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/goatherder/Flood

I'm glad to hear everyone is OK. Best of luck to the Maitland crew for tonight. Maitland central is being cleared out and I hear water supplies are being cut in the greater area soon.

Stay safe.

 

[Jazzafish]

Had a Gig up at Toukley last night, the beer garden was underwater! I was told that there was a jetty under water too!

Flooding was everywhere... Basically every low spot I could see from the freeway became a dam.

Hang in there guys

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

Wow Guys ,, Glad everyone is OK ..

Tony , I know the pain of a flooded pool . At least you don't have to worry about weather there is a croc in it after the water gos down.. We live in a flood zone so we expect it , But I feel for you guys down there that dont ..

TD, wow , Great shots .. I hope you can get it fixed and refilled befor the long hot summer when your going to be needing it. Was it dry befor this event ?


Hope all gos well with the clean up people , We live with heap of rain up here , Its sad that people have lost there lives from a bit of a storm , last year with cyclone Larry the north must of been very lucky..


Best wishes , Might be some good brew names to come out of it all..

:beer:

 

[bigfridge]

Glad to hear that everyone is ok.

I had the usual fun running around on Friday arvo picking up kids etc in the pouring rain and flooding roads. It was the heaviest rain that I have ever seen and then it started to thunder and hail !

We got an inch of water in the downstairs rooms which isn't any great drama as the floor is slate - except for the bedroom which now has soggy carpet.

We lost power Friday night and didn't get it back until Sunday arvo. Trees down everywhere.

One benefit of being a brewer is that you always have plenty of gas bottles and burners around to keep the family fed.

Anyone know how MHB faired ?

David

 

[Trent]

I dunno how MHB went, but I am pretty sure that Keith woulda been working there on sat, so if it was flooded out, he probably woulda posted (if he has power). We can only hope that he is up high enough that the water didnt get in there, and that the building is good enough to not leak like a sieve. It would be an awful blow if he got flooded out, I might give him a call later, see how it all went for him. Sorry to hear about all the other damage, like TD's road, and Les' trip into the murky depths . I hope that you have insurance for the carpet, Dave. I would call the insurace company, get in touch with a carpet cleaner (who usually have dryers) and then maybe pull up the carpet and remove the underlay, which will be cactus. But talk with the insurance mob before ya do that, sometimes thats what they demand, other times not. Havent seen how Maitland fared last night, but I had me fingers crossed. I knew a few people that lived right by the river, and werent leaving their homes, so for their sakes, I hope the SES were overestimating river heights.
All the best
Trent

 

[MHB]

Hi all
We survived, sounds like we all made it OK, I am glad to hear no one got hurt or lost too much.

The shop is fine tho there was water lapping at the front door a couple of times.
Apart from some electrical problems (2 of the 3 phases are still down) and that no one can phone in, while I can now phone out (and the broadband just started working again). No major problems just some water damage.

I grew up in North QLD, the last couple of days reminded me of the weather during cyclone season; exciting in the riding one hell of a good roller-coaster sort of way

Haply the hop and yeast fridges are on the one working phase and the malt didnt get rained on so all's well and thanks to those who asked.

Cheers

MHB

 

[Tony]

Glad you and the shop are ok Mark

I was just in maitland. These pics are about 1 hour old.

the water has dropped about 1 foot from its peak last night.

cheers

 

[shmick]

Glad to hear everyone's ok.

I picked up my w/e supplies from MHB's Fri lunchtime and nearly didn't make it back to Lambton. Cars got swept away not long after I went through.

Left work 5pm in pouring rain and gridlocked traffic (Jesmond round about was closed) and just squeezed through Wallsend before it went under also.
Was down to 40kph in places on the F3 heading south in the middle of the storm dodging fallen trees, rivers running across the road and a moron semi driver trying to break a land speed record with absolutely no visibilty and even less chance of stopping.

The car radio reports said home was competely cut off so I was imagining spending an uncomfortable night in the car but managed to get around the worst spots and arrived home just as the power came back on.

Not as bad as Tony, but 2hrs for what's normally a 50min drive wasn't fun.
Worst part was I left my hops in the fridge at work. It was only SWMBO who stopped me going back for them.

Got a mate whos house is still underwater at Chittaway. He reckons the worst part isnt the water but the mongrels whove been looting the evacuated houses. Low lifes if ever there were.

 

[Steve]

TD - great but sad pics....just wondering how the hell you had the balls to stand on the dam wall in the fourth pic down to take the pic as it was collapsing :blink: Hope the rest of you are all well.
Cheers
Steve

 

[bugwan]

Talk about droughts and flooding rains...unbelievable.

Melbourne has received no more than 3mm in the last week - all this rain has passed us by. If only it fell more evenly...

Good to hear no-one up there is injured, at least.

 

[Sammus]

Did anyone happen to get any photos of Newcastle city at night (particularly around the junction...) I was going to attempt a few photos with my phone but figured there would be heaps to go round. I'm yet to see any!

It was a pretty amazing sight, I was driving down streets in a snorkel clad troopy with water lapping up over the bonnet, feeling sorry for whoever owned any of those cars in the big pile that had drifted together and blocked of the road, all with water up to the roof. I even saw a washing machine float past! - and that was down one of the streets I dared attempt, there were places that looks much much worse that I didnt even bother trying to get down...

oh and before anyone starts telling me off for being one of the ********* out having a blast 4WDing through the flooded streets, I was on a rescue mission, and I didn't disobey any road blocks or get in anyones way or cause any kind of harm...

 

[bigfridge]

Did anyone happen to get any photos of Newcastle city at night (particularly around the junction...) I was going to attempt a few photos with my phone but figured there would be heaps to go round. I'm yet to see any!

http://abc.net.au/newcastle/

 

[T.D.]

TD - great but sad pics....just wondering how the hell you had the balls to stand on the dam wall in the fourth pic down to take the pic as it was collapsing :blink: Hope the rest of you are all well.
Cheers
Steve

I made good use of the zoom! :lol: All the same it had the heart racing a bit walking out on that wall!

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Anyone want to buy a used boat...???

 

[Tseay]

Received these today - not sure if the attachement will work

Did anyone happen to get any photos of Newcastle city at night (particularly around the junction...) I was going to attempt a few photos with my phone but figured there would be heaps to go round. I'm yet to see any!

It was a pretty amazing sight, I was driving down streets in a snorkel clad troopy with water lapping up over the bonnet, feeling sorry for whoever owned any of those cars in the big pile that had drifted together and blocked of the road, all with water up to the roof. I even saw a washing machine float past! - and that was down one of the streets I dared attempt, there were places that looks much much worse that I didnt even bother trying to get down...

oh and before anyone starts telling me off for being one of the ********* out having a blast 4WDing through the flooded streets, I was on a rescue mission, and I didn't disobey any road blocks or get in anyones way or cause any kind of harm...

View attachment Newcastle_Storm_4.pdf

 

[Steve]

TD - hope you went and retrieved your yabbies from the vineyard

Cheers
Steve

 

[stephen]

My folks live up in the hunter. I was up there over the weekend. I've seen nothing like it.

The wall on our big dam gave way and sent several megalitres through the vineyard into the creek. It all happened within a couple of hours. Took out one of the two roads out of the property with it. Definitely the wettest I've ever seen it up there and we've been there since the early 80s. Here are some pics of the carnage unfolding.

View attachment 13130

View attachment 13131

View attachment 13132

View attachment 13133

View attachment 13134

RAF 617 Squadron revisited...

 

[snagler]

What a time to have an emergency appedicitis, I went to my GP with severe adominal pains, he said **** get your arse to Maitland hospital its going to blow. He rang through to the hospital to arrange the operation.

The missus drove me to the hospital, a trip that would normally take 5 minutes from my place. Two hours later we got there. There were times whilst stuck in gridlock that I thought Id get out and hobble there - if there was a gun in the glove box I would have shot myself