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flood] A lot of them were just lined with debris, but they weren‟t washed over, that‟s all, so
I‟m saying that the water wasn‟t swift. There were only two or three places where it
knocked the fence over. Just for a short distance across the deep watercourse or
something like that. The rest of it, even though the whole three wires have been
underwater and are full of debris it‟s not been knocked down.
Marcus Barber: People have told me that, that it‟s flooded forest, it‟s not like it‟s a gushing
torrent.
Colin Hughes: No.
Philip Yam has a detailed knowledge of the flow and flood regimes around the Oriners
homestead, describing how the Eight Mile creek rises and fills small creeks and depressions
around the homestead, the flows moving around the area behind the house on the other side
of the lagoon. Jeff Shellberg, Marcus Barber, and Viv Sinnamon respond to Philip‟s
description of the local flows:
Jeff Shellberg: There‟s lots of what we would call anabranches, that come out and come
back in and then go out. And there are these little pockets of these ridges and islands up
top that are dry, and [the water is] kind of weaving its way down through them, all the way
down.
Viv Sinnamon: When you say dry, you mean under water?
Jeff Shellberg: Well, it‟s wet, and you‟ll sink into it, but it‟s not inundated.
Marcus Barber: There‟s not surface water on the top. Those floods here coming down, is
the water moving fast, can you see it pushing everything down or is it pretty slow?
Philip Yam: Well here it doesn‟t race that much. If you go to Eight Mile [Creek], it will be
racing over there, on that side (gestures to the middle of watercourse).
Jeff Shellberg: Well, we are kind of right on the edge here, on the edge of the floodway.
Philip Yam: In this part here, it won‟t race too fast, because when it gets high, all that area, a
lot of that water will go out that way too, on that side, out on that flat there [gestures towards
low lying land and swamp]. It will flow out through there.
Figure 19. Philip Yam and Louie Native talk to Jeff Shellberg about flow patterns at Oriners.
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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