Travellers staying at a popular camping spot in Tasmania’s north-west had an action-packed few hours last night as heavy rain hit the area.
The camping area at Wings Wildlife Park at Gunns Plains were completely flooded as the deluge arrived.
Wings Wildlife Park manager Gena Cantwell told the Advocate newspaper that people were up in the early hours of the morning pulling campervans away from the drenched area.
She said the rain hadn’t actually been ridiculously bad at the park, but that most of the water had arrived from heavy downpours further afield.
The flooded camping area this morning. PIC: Advocate
Mrs Cantwell said the ground is so hard and dry in summer that it doesn’t soak up the rain the way it does in other seasons.
“There’s definitely a sea of water through Gunns Plains,” she told the Advocate. “If there’s any more rain that comes through, it’s now softened so it’s hard to say if it would bring it back up.”
Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Michael Conway told the newspaper that very heavy rain fell overnight in the North-West and Western Tiers with totals ranging from 50mm to 140mm.
“Rain has eased to showers, with another 5mm to 15mm expected in the West and North-West and up to 5mm elsewhere for the remainder of Saturday, although little in the east,” he said.
Not us personally but while at a caravan club rally at Chittering ( WA ) in the 90’s, there was a down pour on the Friday night and some of our members were parked on the Eastern side of the hall and walked out of their vans into rather big puddles up to their ankles. The majority of us were still workers back in those days and we had to park on the oval so we didn’t encounter any puddles. Those who got wet feet were all retired, now it’s our turn to be early but we haven’t forgotten Chittering and always look for a bit of higher ground.