Shoalhaven Flooding

[LachlanB]

Over the weekend, I went for an overnight walk down to the Shoalhaven at Bungonia. I was planning to visit the Tolwong Ruins, and loop back via Mount Ayre, but was stopped by a raised and discoloured Shoalhaven River. I'd expected that the river would be back to normal after the rain last weekend, but obviously I'd misjudged the amount of rain and the size of the Shoalhaven River catchment.

So I was wondering, how long does the Shoalhaven take to return to normal conditions in its upper sections after a flood? How much rain is generally enough to make it difficult to cross?

I thought I'd ask, as there's a few people here with lots of experience in the area. I know the question is a bit open ended, but it was a very pretty area that I'd like to see more of, and to do that I need to get some idea of when the Shoalhaven is fordable.

[Lizzy]

It drops quite quickly
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDN60144.html
I usually look at the Hillview gauge. It was 0.87 m on Friday & now 0.73m
On Friday I walked down Trestle track packrafted down to Bungonia creek and walked up Mt Ayre (white Track).
The river was much higher than last time I was there- this time it was as you said big brown conveyor belt. Last time it was about 0.65m and seemed a lot lower- heaps more rocks exposed.

[Lizzy]

Here’s a pic

Rapids.jpg (117.93 KiB) Viewed 5845 times

[LachlanB]

A big brown conveyor belt describes the river aptly. Your packrafting trip looks like fun! I'm actually amazed that there'd been someone down the Trestles Track that recently- the spiders had already recolonised the pathway.

[Lizzy]

Ha ha - my hubby carefully moved the spiders aside!

[GPSGuided]

The water looked a tad rough for a river.

[wallwombat]

The Shoalhaven has definitely been up a bit after recent rains but it was far from flood level. I've been down there a couple of times when it's really flooded and it's psycho.

[LachlanB]

I'm sure it's a mess when the river is fully flooded! The debris piles were enough to attest to that. That'd certainly be something to see (so long as you didn't need to get to the other side of the river)...

But, it was up enough that I wasn't able cross the Shoalhaven. I couldn't see the bottom, and the water I collected was a delightful murky brown colour. That counts as a flood to me, even if only a very small one.