Hi all,

In Newcastle we had very heavy rain and gale force winds on Friday, and significantly less of each on Saturday. Up river in the Hunter Valley they had the heavy rain but not strong winds on Friday & Saturday I think. But, then the rain moved down to the Sydney area, luckily, so I think that that is why Maitland escaped the major flooding that was predicted.

I remember in 1971 when I was still living in Maitland and the river reached close to the top of the river banks. It is a deep and very wide gully so it was a huge amount of water coming down, but the flood works including levy banks and spillways which were put in place after the 1955 flood held up well, and the river didn't spill over except in the very low lying flood plains.

It appears that the same thing happened this time. There was a prediction from the Emergency Services that there would be major flooding but because of the floodworks and using the spillways,and the fact that it didn't keep on raining up river, everything is fine. My father and my sister and her family had to evacuate last night but they are back home now.

I have to say that the Australian emergency services are absolutely magnificent. And the government response is always very good. (I'm glad I live here and not New Orleans. Sorry to say that, US-er's, but it's true!)

Hubby & I, and thousands of other sightseers went to see the ship which has run aground on Newcastle beach. It is an amazing sight to see a big red bulk carrier right angle parked on the beach. Hubby has been wearing out his SLR digital camera and has some really good photos of it.

Oddly enough it was only a couple of weeks ago when we drove to Stockton, a nearby waterside suburb of Newcastle, and saw the 1908 shipwreck of the French ship, the Adolphe, near the breakwall. I'm ashamed to say I had never known that that was there. All 130 crew were rescued by lifeboat, rowed out in high seas. This week we have watched the modern version of rescuing sailors in high seas: the Westpac Rescue Helicopter winching the sailors up off the ship in gale force winds and waves which had to be at least 10 metres high.

What an exciting Queen's Birthday holiday weekend! I was planning to drop in a folk weekend at Maitland, but I don't think that I'll be going there. What I'm wondering is, will the roads be open to Maitland so that I can go to work tomorrow. :-)

Helen