Dam, dam, dam (and Creek)

I noted a few times that it has been rather dry round here.  The threatened megastorm and flood event forecast for last Thursday turned out to be a non event (although the 9,mm of rain was - just - better than nothing).  

Today I went for a wander round the block to see how our water storage was doing.  The bottom line is that I am glad we don't rely on a dam for water.

I'll start with a map of the block.  

 Dam 1 is about 700m from the house and about 20m higher in elevation.  It has still got some water in it, possibly reflecting it being spring fed (according to the previous owners).

If the dam was "full" the water line would be up to the base of the grass.  My guess is that it is about 30cm below that level at present.  If we have had a really wet period it might be briefly 20cm higher than "full"..

Dam 2 is very small and shallow.  It has dried out several times since we have owned the place, and now is one of those times.

In a damper year this dam has a nice collection of Otellia ovalifolia flowers.  At present it has a good collection of plants of that species in a relatively easy to collect situation.

Of course that requires having somewhere better to plant them and Dam 3 ...

 ... doesn't satisfy that since it too is about 30cm short which means that if we get decent rain the returning water will drown the lilies.  (If we don't soon get enough water for that the lilies will dry out, also not good.

The indicator of depth is this sword which we found when we took the place over.  When this dam is at capacity the water is up to the hilt.  In a flood the sword cannot be seen!

Whiskers Creek is completely dry and hhasn't flowed since late November.  This is the scene at map point A.

 Here is point B.  There is a very small puddle at the far end of this mini-billabong.

We really could do with a decent lot of rain.  My guess is that about 25mm in a day will get some run-off happening.