The wettest September on record for the Border caught the Murray Darling Basin Authority off guard as it decided to fill Lake Hume in August while anticipating a drier spring.
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MDBA acting head of river management Andrew Reynolds said reliable rain forecasts extended only a week ahead.
“The reality is that in August we had a drier period and, while the forecast was for a wet spring, there wasn’t really an indication of just how great those inflows would be throughout September,” he said.
“As it turns out we’ve been in the wettest 10 per cent of years. So while people are saying, ‘well, you knew it was going to be wetter than average’. Yes, that’s correct, but could we know that it was going to be this much wetter than average? Well, no, not really. That wasn’t the indications we had.”
September was characterised by consistent downpours with little time in between fronts and inflows into Lake Hume did not recede.
Mr Reynolds acknowledged the pain of landholders downstream of Lake Hume but said the MDBA had been able to reduce the outflows below what the inflows had been after several storms.
“So while people have experienced quite significant flooding, and I’m not diminishing that, without the operations as they’ve been, it would’ve been even higher again,” he said.
”In operating the storage we have to make a decision, or balance judgements, about filling the storage to ensure we have water to supply those that are requiring it later in the season versus preserving airspace in the dam to be able to mitigate floods, and that’s been exactly the case this season.”
South Albury farmer Darryl Gray said on August 9 the MDBA should start releasing water back then, when Lake Hume was at 77 per cent.
“There should be some flood mitigation, because it’s not going to be a dry spring,” he said.
His vegetable and hay crops are now underwater.
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting temperatures above 20 degrees from Thursday until Sunday.
A Wahgunyah couple sandbagged their motel as rising water from the Murray was tipped to reach 7.7 metres on Wednesday.
Riverside Motel owners Terry and Coral Young said neither the SES or Indigo Council were able to provide sandbags but fortunately the previous owner of the business had left some onsite.
A group of farmers from Grafton in northern NSW had booked seven rooms from Sunday but called Mr Young to cancel because of the logistical headache the waters caused.
Mr Young took aim at the Murray Darling Basin Authority for what he said was a failure in managing Lake Hume’s water releases.
“The impact for us is enormous,” he said.
“This flood today does not need to have happened.”
Mr Young said the motel’s rooms would be affected if water levels rose to about 8 metres.
Wahgunyah had not seen levels as high as this since 1996, when it reached 7.5 metres.
In 1992, the river rose to 7.72 metres and in 1975, 8.56 metres.
After a disappointing season the Corowa-Rutherglen Football Club banded together to sandbag its clubrooms after the SES issued a moderate flood warning for the town.
Craig Spencer, a director of the Kangaroos, said the team got as much off the ground as possible on Monday night.
“It’s one of those things that’s a bit inevitable,” he said.
“Once you get the warnings, you’ve got to do the best you can to minimise the damage.
“And from what we’re hearing, the damage is going to happen.”
Meanwhile, more than 100 homes in Wangaratta were left without power after a tree fell over a powerline Tuesday afternoon. Further rainfall was forecast for the North East on Wednesday.
