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Published: November 2nd 2013
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Neil Turner Weir
Morning reflections The homeward leg of our journey continued across the wide open spaces of outback Qld from Charleville, to Mitchell, through Roma and on to Miles. We had considered going up to Carnarvon Gorge from Roma, but will leave that for another day when the temperatures are a little lower.
Mitchell is probably best known for their mineral hot springs, but on a hot day that didn't appeal, but the free camp at Neil Turner Weir with cool breezes off the water did appeal, so we camped there for the night. Actually, we had to move from our original spot beside the dam when a thunder storm brought us back to reality. Initially it was all noise and wind, but the rain started to fall and that sounded alarms. In many of these areas the soil becomes extremely greasy with any amount of water, and that is what happened. We drove gently away from the camp spot towards the sealed road - there appeared to be little relationship between the direction of the steering wheel and the direction of travel. However, with some patience we finally got to where we wanted to be and parked up for the night secure in
Neil Turner Weir 02
Afternoon storm building the knowledge that any further rain would not cause any problems. Well, we had barely got off the grass and parked up, and the storm passed by. We had a clear blue sky again, and it stayed clear all night.
The Neil Turner Weir is attractive and has quite a variety of bird life which kept us interested.
We checked out the next free camp and found one just outside of Miles, the Gil Weir. We had visions of a similar outlook and environment to the previous weir. Well, were we in for the surprise of our lives.
You know that city kids think milk just comes in cartons from a factory without knowing the whole story? Well, have you ever wondered where our small automobiles come from? You thought they came from a factory somewhere after engineers and designers spent billions of dollars designing these things? Wrong. In this remote central Qld location, the truth is revealed. What we witnessed defies even the wildest imagination. What we reveal will make you even wonder if the perceived truth about many other things like bikes, boats and aircraft are all baloney.
On this weir we witnessed the
Neil urner Weir 03
Pied Cormorant sunbathing. auto mating process, and after just a short gestation, Rita, supervising automobileologist, delivered a beautiful little 4WD baby. One little cough and it was up and away. See the photos (scroll down below to view) of this amazing event. These are uncut straight off the camera shots.
On a more serious note, this weir has been polluted with a water born weed, Salvinia. This South American plant was imported for use in fish tanks, but has been dumped into waterways causing havoc. The plant evaporates water quite quickly, and also smothers things like turtles who cannot get their nose up through the mat. Other fish die due to lack of oxygen. The weir is also the town water supply for Miles. This weed, if sucked into the pumps, causes major damage. This also limits the use of herbicides.
In this case, the weir is almost full, and the rainy season has just started. If this weed flows over the weir, it will infect the whole Murray Darling basin, one of Australia's most vulnerable central river systems. This would affect irrigation in Qld, South Australia and Victoria. So the weed scooping machine has arrived in time to clear the
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Small parrot - possibly a pale headed rosella. weir. Booms have been put in place to prevent the weed getting to the pumps, and it will take the best part of a week to clear the thick mat of weed. There may be some perimeter spraying to kill off weed left on the banks. As it happens, the present weed is a little immature and hasn't started seeding. Hopefully the weed will be removed before it matures.
How did the infection start? Someone may have cleaned out fish tanks containing a few of these plants, or an outdoor fish pond. There have been cases of people growing this weed for sale to people with aquariums. We don't know how, but if you have any salvinia and want to destroy it, the only thing you can do is compost it away from any drains or streams so that waterways are not infected.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Very cool machine
I'd like to drive that