Clayton Weir

[Quark]

Hi All,

Last Monday was a very sad day for my family, our little old dog Bonny the Beagle has been very sick and had to be put down. One of our photo's of Bonny won the March photo challenge. We headed off to Hindmarsh Island for a few days looking for a change of scenery and to try and raise the spirits of our son. Here are some quite historical photo's we took at Clayton Bay, where a weir is being built as a last resort to try and save the river and wet lands between Clayton and Goolwa.

While at Clayton I noticed a roll off roofed observatory, there was no one around and I think it my be Paul's, not sure.

Image 1. From the Lake Alexandria side looking South.
Image 2. From the Clayton Jetty looking North.
Image 3. A panorama of 4 images of the weir. Created with CS4 and photo merge.
Image 4. An observatory I noticed in Clayton.

Thanks for looking.
Regards
Trevor

[jjjnettie]

:( I'm so sorry to hear about your Bonny's passing. There'll be a void in all your lives for quite a while.

[matt]

Hi Trevor.

Sorry to hear about Bonny's passing. Being a household with our own little dog....we can thoroughy share your pain and understand your sense of loss.

Warmest regards:)

[BerrieK]

Trevor I'm saddened to hear about Bonny; its really hard losing a furry member of the family and can truly empathise with you all. I hope that you all had a relaxing and therapeutic break together. The weir construction looks interesting; I really hope that its construction assists in the preservation of the wetlands and does not worsen the salinity and acidity problems down that way.

Kerrie

[Tamtarn]

Trevor sorry to hear you have lost a dear friend in Bonnie.

We have two Bearded Collies who are now getting on in years and they are our family. We would miss them dearly.

[Quark]

Thanks JJJ, it really was gut wrenching, as she looked to us for comfort from the distress that she was in. I cuddled her in my arms while the vet put her to sleep and now she lays at rest in our back garden by one of her favorite snoozing spots.



Thanks Matt, they certainly give more than they ask for and each has their own character.



Thanks Kerrie, most definitely they become members of our families, part of our lives.

The Murray Darling system is in crisis and there has been a lot of talk about it. Most blame some one else for the problem, all would agree that there has been a catastrophic over allocation of the water. It has become so political, bogged down in red tape and talk fests. The weir at Clayton is one of the few tangible things to happen, thus far. Many are violently opposed to it.

Below this weir the Finniss River and Currency Creek feed into the system. There is substantial flows, mostly from winter rains, however, upstream of Clayton lay Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert. Alexandrina would have a surface area of about 300 sq km and the inflows from the Finniss River and Currency Creek have little effect when spread over such a large area. The weir will isolate the lower Murray from these major and very shallow lakes. At the moment the water level in the lower section is about 1.5 m below sea level. The sea is held back by a man made barrage. The low level has left substantial wet lands high and dry and revealed acid sulphate soils.
The plan is to pump water from Alexandrina over the weir and to raise the water level to about 1.4 m above sea level. The winter flows down the Finniss River and Currency Creek will then maintain the water level with fresh water, with any excess amount going back into Lake Alexandrina.



Thank for your kind words and I am sure your Collies know how loved and how lucky they are.

[Kevnool]

Hi Trev sorry to hear about Bonz.
The weir is coming along fine, At least the boat will get a run in the near future.

Cya Friday....Cheers Kev.

[Virgs]

That is Pauls observatory, sorry to hear about your loss

[Quark]

Thanks Virgs, I thought it may have been Paul's, although I think I have seen others post DS images taken from Clayton.



Thanks Kev, maybe we will see Birds spot on Jupiter from Kinchega.

[Paul Haese]

Yep that is my Obs Trevor. The images you see from Clayton are the guys coming to my place and imaging in the driveway. There is the odd one or two amateurs down there, but no one doing astrophotography.

Nice shot of my obs. It caused quite a stir during building it. The locals thought I was doing all sorts of things.

You should see the stuff at the regulator now. There has been slumping all over the place and it is only 3/4 the way across. Black sludge everywhere too.

The interesting thing is that the Finnis and Currency creek are up stream in the scheme of things. The Murray once flowed straight out into the Coorong and the passage down to Goolwa flowed towards Lake Alexandrina.

Sorry about your dog.

[Quark]

Your observatory looks good Paul and in nice dark surroundings.

If the weir is successful we may be back down in the school holidays later in the year with our boat.

Cheers
Trevor