For the last gazillion years life in Australia has been all about water restrictions. Dry parched earth, dust storms that blanketed the whole east coast and farm land reduced to a dismal homage to the Martian landscape. Stories of childhood days spend darting in and out sprinkler spray, water fighting with the garden hose, sliding down backyard tarpaulin rivers and bouncing carefree in the midst of an inverted waterfall shooting up through our trampolines have been told to our own children. They sit in wide eyed wonder conflicted with a sense of longing for those days and a righteous indignation for their own parents disrespect of our most precious resource.
Long days soaked to the skin, clad in our summer uniform of swimming costumes listening to the chorus of click, click, click swish of the neighbourhood automatic watering systems sums up my childhood summers. Endless days of dry unforgiving scorching heat sums up the summers my kids have been living through. Until this year. This year the rain came down.
It has rained every day this summer. Mostly just a steady drizzle from the ever present cloud cover however some days the heavens have opened and literally spilt their guts on all of us. I’m getting quite used to drying carpet tiles as our back room is under water again. After so much time we are finally able to unite our Aussie voices and finish the song “A land of droughts and………”
Glenn was between jobs and I wasn’t feeling the best so he decided to run his own school excursion day. As our local dam with its ever decreeing water levels has been the focus of so much water related anxiety he couldn’t miss the chance to take the kids to see it brim full and spilling over. The last time we were up here just a month ago, the section behind the kids, the spill over for floods was bare dry concrete.
Warragamba Dam officially full.
Where once the water level was so low the long submerged houses of the old valley settlement could be seen piercing through the surface, now full grown trees are being consumed by the voluminous water.
The kids sketching the water catchment.
Glenn took the kids for a play at Hawkesbury Park as they followed the flooded river back home.
Sabrina doesn’t quite have the height her big sister does at the moment but she’s trying.
The end of the road for this flood effected river side pathway.
The water bursting the banks at the bridge to North Richmond.
Having a better look at the swollen river.
A pathway under Windsor bridge that you could maybe swim along if you wanted to.
Windsor Bridge, I’m pretty sure it closed again an hour after they drove over it, I know some schools sent kids hom
e early that day to get them across before it shut. 
one very exhausted chookie at the end of a long wet day.
Awesome photos! A really good sum up of our Summer!