I decided to take advantage of the sunshine to venture down to Chauncy Vale to investigate this drama. To put myself in a good mood I took the loop to the Caves first where I met a nice father and daughter group and had a nice chat (which gave me a chance to recover my breath). The track up to the caves remains steep, unstable and adventurous, though clearly much work has been done. A nice drystone bridge is a new addition over a gully.

By the time i got to the caves I was worrying that the rest of the loop might be as steep and stony as the bits I had already negotiated, but fortunately it is more ziggy zaggy so not so steep. It did provide its own challenges in the shape of a downed tree which presumably dropped during the last wind and has not been noticed by staff yet.






Having had my return to childhood pleasures I then had to address grown up concerns and the works described in the article and it seems the concern is valid (not quite the storm in a teacup my contacts in Council would have me believe).

Basically they seem to think they have finished but are in fact about a third of the way through the work required. No plantings, bed armouring, bank shaping, and the 'barrier' to divert the stream into its new course is a) subject to being short-cutted in a flood due to a pre-existing temporary course on the flood plain and b) loosely piled soil and rock with no effort to seal or compact.

See what I mean? Useless. Basically there are two of these, the one facing the stream has slightly larger rocks in it, but the matrix is similar. Then there is quite a deep ditch/pool the base of which is lower than either stream bed. Presumably the idea is that if the first wall is breached, the water will pond in this. Problem is, once it is deep enough to top the further wall, the lack of structure in that one will result in catastrophic collapse and a wall of rock-bearing water hitting the eroded bank at high speed.

Downstream the failings in the works is even more apparent as even with the small amount of rain we have had of late, the brief flush caused by the downfall the other night has resulted in some fairly significant siltation at the discharge point of the diversion.


Here's what a proper job looks like (though I would settle for something less manicured, as long as it does the job.