I saw my first crocodile warning sign this morning at a concrete boat ramp giving access to the Ross River in Railway Estate. Warning! It shouted. Achtung! The horizontal, yellow sign showed a stylized crocodile head with open jaws, as well as a swimming symbol with a bar across it. It stated that crocodiles live in the area and that attack may cause injury or death. That made me wonder just how far up the river the big guys travel.
I had gone cycling in light morning drizzle that steadily magnified into heavier rain. It turned me homeward, but didn’t appear to deter city workers mowing and trimming grass near the golf course. They, like the city parks workers I’ve seen in Anderson Park Botanical Gardens and the Ross River Parkway, all wore broad-rimmed hats and bright orange long-sleeved shirts for sun protection. The riding mowers were equipped with white canopies to shade and shelter drivers. The freshly cut grass today lay clumped and wet, whereas yesterday afternoon, when I went running/walking at 4 p.m., the recently-cut grass in the parkway lay in ordered, sweet-smelling swathes like hay drying in the sunshine that had burned away morning rain clouds.
The Wet in Townsville (© Magi Nams)
After I returned home (and again put my sneakers in the oven), the rain intensified to a thudding drum roll on the roof and a streaming torrent beyond the windows. Vilis phoned to ensure I was safely home. The yard became flooded with water that slowly receded as the rain diminished in early afternoon.
Townsville Storm Drain (© Magi Nams)
Townsville’s streets are steeply cambered and have long, deep storm drains cut into curb walls. Canals throughout the city that are bare, dry concrete in fair weather become transformed into raging rivers fed by storm drain outflow pipes during and after rainstorms. The three weirs on the Ross River and the Ross River Dam, which during drier spells appear as benign regulators of the river’s flow, in the aftermath of storms restrain the violent outflow of the river in order to limit flash flooding. Although the city may receive essentially no rain for ten months of the year, its infrastructure appears to be very much dictated by the Wet.
