The facilities at Red Rock are pretty good. There are men’s and women’s toilets, taps (although you’re not supposed to drink the water), camping areas, picnic tables and a car track around the whole camping area. The road into Red Rock is all dirt, but it’s only a few kilometres long. There is also a self-registration booth at the entrance to camping area.

In summer Red Rock is known for its terrible swarms of mosquitoes, but in winter they’re all dead and we were only bothered by one or two single mosquitoes.

Below are some of the photos that I took while camping at Red Rock:

One of the many forestry tracks winding in and around the Red Rock area. They’re all dirt, but hardly anyone uses them and they’re really good for long walks or rides.

Some baby pine trees next to the road in to Red Rock. The forestry department log these trees once they grow big enough.

A few more pine trees, which appear to be leaning a lot but really aren’t. It’s just the camera angle.

The beautiful Stony Creek running just down from the camping area. This particular spot is about 800m downstream from the camping area.

Looking downstream in the other direction from the above photo. I reckon it looks like somewhere from the Northern Territory! But don’t worry about crocodiles too much, the water in the creek was much too cold for crocodiles to survive in it.

This shows the extent of the floodwaters that came into our paddock, as well as our neighbours paddock.

The corner of the road where the floodwater was running over. You can see how the water had uprooted some of the grass and rolled it back. The view in the photo above is just to the left of this.

The damage caused by the floodwater to the edge of the road. It has now been repaired with some concrete. Don’t forget that this road will soon be replaced by the new one, so it isn’t the most tidy repair .

The floodwaters down at the big new bridge. The deepest point in there would be over my head, and flowing very strongly.

Looking on the other side of the creek, over the old bridge, you can see just how much water there was flowing through there.

This is amazing. Have a look at the grass on the other side. See how high the water has been? That’s right, the little bridge was actually submerged under the creek! It probably only lasted an hour or less like that however, because as soon as the rain stops the creek starts going down.

The roadworkers are in the photo because something from the new bridge had been pushed off by the floodwaters and hit the old bridge. They were then checking it for structural damage. None was found, though.

This is the worst-hit area around our place. Located about 3km away from us, this flooding probably extended for 500 metres or more. The deepest place on that road would be around 2 metres. While I was there locals kept driving up and taking photos of the flooding.

[tags]adelaide park, woodbury, bungundarra, rain, bridge, creek, water, flooding, flood[/tags]

The title says it all. Currently we are having some very heavy rain as a result of a tropical low that is moving down the coast. Heaps of roads are closed, including the one on our corner. So now we are basically unable to drive into Yeppoon. About half an hour ago I put my swimmers on and went outside to look at the flooding. What I saw amazed me, because this is the first time in my life I’ve seen flooding personally.

I had previously prepared some alternative pictures for this, but that was yesterday before we got the real flooding. So I dumped those pics and I am using the photos that I took half and hour ago. They reflect what is happening here right now. Sorry for the blurriness of some, I had to wrap the camera in a bag to protect it from the rain. BTW a local who was just outside our driveway waiting to get through said that this area hadn’t had flooding like this for 17 years!

The road at our corner is currently closed, although 4wd are able to get through. I will try to take some more pictures, maybe one down at the big bridge when I can get through. That would be really thundering right now!

A general overview of the corner.

The water thundering into our back paddock and then into the neighbours.

Looking up north in the opposite direction. The water in this picture is only about shin height.

A closeup of the water flooding over the enbankment.

For the last few days of the week they then concentrated on the section near our place, which involved filling in part of the creek near the Bungundarra intersection and also dumping over 30 truckloads of rocks and dirt to bring the new road up to the level of the smaller bridge near out place. Photos are below.

The new section of road just up from the big bridge. If you look at previous roadworks posts, you’ll be able to see what this section of road used to look like. On the right you can see a turnoff for cars going to Mt Rae Road.

Looking down onto the big bridge. Now all they have to do is put gravel down on the other side and they are almost finished.

Located just to the right of the smaller bridge near our place, you can see how they’ve filled in a section of the creek. This is to make sure the water goes the alternate route, which is straight under the bridge and road and back into the creek.

The water coming out from the other side of the road. The white posts you see are marking the Telstra fibre optic cable, which runs under the road too. Beats me why we can’t get broadband with a cable (and fibre-optic at that) running right near us.

Finally, this photo taken yesterday (Friday) shows how they’ve filled in up to the level of the bridge. I expect to see this section laid with crusherdust and then tar in the next few weeks.

Last Saturday I went with my family to Kemp Beach, because we wanted to explore the creek there, especially after the recent rain. I was a bit disappointed, because it was only flowing under the footpath at it’s usual slow rate. However when we walked up a bit I discovered that it mostly goes underground near the footpath, but further along it flows freely.

Anyway, just a couple of meters into our exploration I spotted a small snake with a yellow belly and a black top sunning itself. It wasn’t scared at all, because even when I stood on the other side of the stream it just stayed put.

Later on I had a glimpse of another snake, and from what I saw I think it was about 3 times thicker with the same markings as the little snake. Unlike the little one, however, he was definitely no hanging around, so he took off as soon as he saw (or heard) me.

The snake – which I think is a tree snake or a yellow belly.

As we progressed, we found quite a few small waterfalls such as the one above, although that is more like a minature waterfall.

Further up, we came out of the fairly dense tree cover and emerged into the open, where we could see up the rest of the hill.

In one particular spot we found there were heaps of little ferns (I think) growing under a tree.

We kept going up and entered into some more tree cover, where I found some really brightly coloured tendrils that were creeping across the rocks (in some places there was just sold rock that the water ran over).

Eventually, after I’d found some really pretty green moss and caught a glimpse of a much bigger snake with the same markings as the small snake, I reached the top. The above is a view over down the creek, over Kemp Beach and Rosslyn Bay, and in the distance, Yeppoon.

[tags]yeppoon, creek, water, kemp beach, mountain[/tags]

In other places around Queensland some roads have been cut, including the highway between Rockhampton and Emerald. You’ve most likely seen that on the news.

Thankfully though, all this Saturday has been rain-free (although with a very overcast sky), and the weather is showing signs of clearing up.

These drains just near our place have been inundated with water, and because there is only a end on the other side, all the water just backs out again and flows under the road.

Meanwhile the creek down at the bridges (old and new) is fairly raging along, and I couldn’t wade across at one place because the water was higher than my knees. The photo above shows the creek exiting after going through both bridges.

The place at the bridges where I tried to cross. The channel is in between the main clump of grass and the top side.

While down at the bridge on the day I took the photos (Friday) I happened to see the Livingstone Shire Mayor, Bill Ludwig, taking photos with some people.

This shows a small creek (just near the two bridges) flowing on it’s way into Plain Creek, the biggest one around for a few kilometres.

[tags]roadworks, adelaide park, woodbury, rain, bridge, creek, water[/tags]

Hardly any work has been done on the roadworks since before we went down the Gold Coast for our Christmas holidays, with the exception of some work on the new big bridge, which you will see a photo of. They have also broken up a section of the temporary road that was built, presumably to stop people hooning on it.

Below are some photos.

You can see how full of water this section near our place is. Because the water can’t go anywhere it is overflowing towards the top of the pic.

Just a macro of the overflowing water. The grass has been overpowered and subdued

This is what our dam looked like yesterday. Today (sunday) it has gone down noticabley because of the overflow that we dug a few years ago.

This is basically the only roadworks activity since Christmas, so far. They have gotten rid of the steep access path that was used to go down under the concrete, and piled up a lot of dirt in preparation for the road.

Two boys on quads were having a great time spinning their wheels and causing erosion on the tracks. In the picture above you can just see the two quads in the upper left corner.

[tags]roadworks, adelaide park, woodbury, rain, bridge, creek, water[/tags]

You can get a good idea of what Corio Bay looks like by going to Google Maps.

I must warn you however, if you do attempt to go up there be prepared for a fairly bumpy drive as the road isn’t very well maintained.

A view looking across the channel to a headland. I would love to live up there and own a boat so I could explore everywhere, however I don’t think I could get an internet connection very easily

One of the many 4wd’s that enjoy using the beach to drive on.

These signs contain information on the does and don’t at Corio Bay.

The main track used to get on the sand.

This row of posts partly protects the area to the right from being driven on by naughty 4wd’ers.

[tags]travel, waterpark, creek, corio, bay, rydges, sand, beach[/tags]