Flood waters pour into Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre in rare spectacle “supercharged by climate change” | South Australia
A water pulse of the floods increased in Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre in what could be the most important complement of a generation.
The sacred site of the Arabana people houses rivers and streams that flow towards the second largest salty lake in the world. Its surrounding basin extends over 1.2 million km2, or just under a sixth of the Australian land mass.
After months of recorded precipitation and widespread floods across the interior Queensland, the dark and water serpentine canals have reached the South Australian outback.
The showers that swallowed Queensland have forced some residents of remote communities to evacuate and cut the others for weeks. The flood zone covered the United Kingdom size four times.
The water ending south through the Inland river systems will dissolve the generally salty crust to produce an inner sea. Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre contains the lowest point in the country, 15.2 meters from sea level.
Trevor Wright, an outback pilot and Wrightsair owner who has stolen in the region since 1992, said he had never seen anything like it. “It's incredible in the pure volume and speed to which [the flood water is] Traveling over the campaign, “he said.
With cooler temperatures, Wright said he expected water to persist for months due to slow evaporation. “We are starting to see a lot of life as birds and some of the wild animals that go to water,” he said, listing camels, dingos and wild pigs among the first arrivals.
The pilot recognized “catastrophic” environmental damage in Queensland, but said that it was incredible to see the subsequent impact of flood waters, the native vegetation starting to prosper and the animal populations that should explode.
According to a view of the bird, water appears as a dark ribbon moving through the desert – a rare spectacle of fresh tones in the hot and arid region.
The images taken by Paul Hoelen overlooking the northern part of the lake reveal a kaleidoscope of blue, green, yellow and silver. The aerial photographer has documented the region for more than a decade and was among the first to capture flood waters, continuing their slow march to the large salt mold of Lake Eyre.
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Hoelen said it could be the largest flood event in the lake this century.
The photographer said he expected the event to take place in gusts of colored, movement and life before an inevitable and “poetic” drying.
“There will be a lot of faces to that,” he said. “It is an explosion of the cycle of life and death, and we are only at the first act.”
While the show is captivating, the experts warned against the fragility of the ecosystem.
Dr. Helen Scott -Orr, former general inspector of biosecurity and chief veterinary director of South Wales, said that flooding would temporarily create a “party” for animals – including frogs, fish and migratory birds such as Pélicans – but deadlines were likely when the evaporation was installed.
“This extraordinary exposure of nature has been supercharged by climate change,” she said.
