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Figure 23. Large Woody Debris (LWD) deposited during flood on the Eight Mile Creek.
Colin Hughes commented that a flood at the Oriners homestead indicated that the whole of
the Crosbie and Eight Mile systems were flooded. He also noted that the system was
discrete - rain which landed in the main Alice River catchment was unlikely to back up the
flow of the Eight Mile to the point at which a change was observable at the homestead. In a
longer excerpt from a conversation recorded on site, Philip Yam, Louie Native, and three of
the report authors explore water flows in the area:
Marcus Barber: So that first rains, if it rains up further, up near the main road, does that
water come down this way, or go somewhere else?
Philip Yam: It fills up creeks, creeks will start running. Well actually, where we living here
[at Oriners Lagoon], we are nearly downhill, from up this end [towards Dixie Station].
Because if a flood comes up here at Oriners, and there‟s a big flood, it‟ll only last 3 days
and then it will be all gone again, it will be back to normal.
Louie Native: Running through that waterhole bank again.
Philip Yam: But if there is a real big one coming from up there [further up the catchment], it
will come a little bit further.
Marcus Barber: So if the rain falls close to here…
Philip Yam: Bigger storm up there, up the top.
Marcus Barber: That‟s when you get a really big flood here?
Viv Sinnamon: in the Crosbie and all the Alice.
Marcus Barber: But if it rains close to Oriners you get a smaller flood?
Philip Yam: Smaller flood, yeah. All that area there will be full of water, along there [behind
the house] because you got all these watercourses running through there. Water will be
flowing in from that way [and] all these swamps get full, they start flooding all that area and
all the high ridges stay dry. You got a lot of watercourses everywhere, running there and
over there. And there are just little islands, here and there.
Viv Sinnamon: We‟ve got a little surveyors map of this area, and the surveyor saw some
hills. We‟ve got it all mapped here. Just for this area [around the homestead].
Marcus Barber: So the real floods you worry about are where there has been a lot of rain
further up?
Philip Yam: Well, we had a good relationship with the guy who used to own Dixie, and the
old fellow [Nugget Finch] who lived at Sefton, well he used to ring him, because he had a
phone down there [at Sefton]. Him and old Nugget would call up on the radio and tell us
there is a big flood coming down, a lot of water coming down.
Marcus Barber: How many days?
Philip Yam: Come up for three days.
Marcus Barber: But if Dixie told Nugget there was a flood coming, how quick did it come
here, 1 day or 5 days or what?
Philip Yam: 5 days later it would be here. It comes around in a big bend, which is the Eight
Mile Creek. We‟d probably get a call from somewhere further up.
Viv Sinnamon: If it starts coming down, it‟s coming down quick.
Marcus Barber: But if they see it at Dixie, and it‟s come up at Dixie. Is it next day that it
comes up here?
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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