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When Wankers and Water Combine. Photos taken at the Murray's Bridge crossing over the Condamine River on the 5/01/2008.
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When Wankers and Water Combine Photos taken at the Murray's Bridge crossing over the Condamine River on the 5/01/2008
Following the flooding that occurred in the upper Condamine catchment in early January 2008, I decided to grab my camera and catch some pictures of the first floods in over 10 years.
It was all going well with the light providing some nice effects
While snapping some pictures Dad called out to me to get my camera ready as a car was approaching the other side through the road closed signs and some nut bag was about to attempt the crossing.
He pulled up, got his kid to jump out and lock the hubs in. He then headed straight across, he didn’t wait and watch it or try walking it, nothing… (Note the ‘road closed’ signs in the background)
It is about 150 meters across here and the water was flowing at an astonishing rate
This Graph was taken from the Bureau of Meteorology - BOM website and shows the peak of the flood recorded at the bridge recording station. The crossing attempt was made at 6.00pm on the 5/01/2008 (as can be seen it was at the peak of the flood level).
The Bridge is normally about 6 - 7 meters above the water level here.
Where the water is turbulent (where he is now) there is Armco guard railing. We figured he’d be OK there as the rail was breaking up the flow a little.
You can see the extra bow wave that has been pushed up into the undisturbed flow.
It was at this point that the water lifted and moved the vehicle a little downstream (Note how sideways the vehicle and boat are).
It settled back to the ground and started moving forward again! Its worth remembering that this bloke had no way of knowing that the bridge or road were still intact under the water.
That’s a young kid in the passenger seat… There was a number plate on the front when he went in the water…
Once across the river, he opened the doors and let the ankle deep water drain from the cab. Here one of the assembled crowd asked why he did it and he responded - “What that? It was nothing, I’ve been through deeper water than that.” and then promptly speed off only to return to offer his email address to the same person and asked if he would send him some photos.