Townsville’s 2018 Wet Season and what comes after

We’re officially in Winter now and I reckon we moved definitively into the Dry season a fortnight ago, so it’s worth looking back at the Wet and seeing what’s likely to happen to our water supply in the Dry.

Wet season rainfall and the year to come

Herveys Range rain radar
Here comes the rain! Hervey’s Range rain radar, 9.15 pm on Feb 20, 2018

BoM climate data reveals that our rainfall so far this year, Jan – Feb – Mar – April – May, was 118 – 285 – 343 – 10 – 2 mm, for a total of 760 mm.

Of that, 435 mm fell in the last week of February and the first two days of March when a rain depression was trapped over the city; an unusual but very welcome event which made the difference between another really  weak Wet and a nearly-average one. Continue reading “Townsville’s 2018 Wet Season and what comes after”

Are rainwater tanks useful in Townsville?

Townsville’s ongoing drought has encouraged many of us, especially the keen gardeners, to think seriously about bores, grey water systems and rainwater tanks. This post attempts to arrive at a credible answer to the first question we must ask about tanks: are they even useful?

We have been hearing from two schools of thought on the question for as long as we have been in Townsville, more than 25 years: “Yes, of course!” and “No! The dry season is so long and so dry that no tank will last through it.” One group must be wrong, and the only way to find out is to crunch a few numbers. Continue reading “Are rainwater tanks useful in Townsville?”

Grey water – keeping gardens alive during water restrictions

Townsville is on Level 3 water restrictions as I write and is quite likely to be on Level 4  within a few months. If so, it’s very likely to stay on level 4 until we get our next Wet season.

Level 3 (sprinklers not to be used, handheld watering 6-7am and 6-7pm only, odds and evens applies to handheld watering) is tough enough on gardens – and gardeners – and Level 4 (no sprinklers or handheld watering allowed, watering cans/buckets only, odds and evens applies to watering cans/buckets) will be far worse. In these conditions, using grey water is one of the most significant options Continue reading “Grey water – keeping gardens alive during water restrictions”

How will climate change affect Townsville’s water security?

This article was published on the North Queensland Conservation Council’s blog on November 19, 2016, as the fourth post in their water security series, addressing an issue which none of the first three looked at.

In the first, Gail Hamilton introduced our water supply and then-recent studies on its ability to cope with expected population growth. Part two, “Hell’s Gate Dam – Water Wonderland or Pipe Dreams?” by Vern Veitch explores dam infrastructure options, and part three summarises information shared by Townsville Enterprise Ltd. about the Hell’s Gate Dam feasibility study at NQCC’s 2016 AGM and forum.

My post is still on the NQCC site but I wanted it on Green Path as well and added it in May 2020. I have updated links where possible, but have chosen not to update the text and have published it under its original date.

When I read Gail Hamilton’s post six weeks ago I agreed with nearly all of it but noticed a gap which was potentially important, i.e., the impact of climate change on our water security: the ‘Regional Water Supply Security Assessment’ from the Department of Water and Energy Supply [DEWS] (2014), upon which she relied for her ‘current situation’ section, didn’t consider climate change effects at all.

[Note, Jan 2022: All links to DEWS pages have broken and have simply been removed although the documents may still exist at different URLs.] Continue reading “How will climate change affect Townsville’s water security?”