A year since water flowed over weir
Bourke Weir on Monday, 19 August 2019 Photo TWH
It is now more than one year since the water flowed over the Weir at Bourke – and a year of water restrictions for residents.
Council General Manager Ross Earl said the current period of “no flow” well exceeded the previous longest period and was certainly an unwanted record.
He said the environment flow and the flow from the Culgoa River upstream have been helpful but not enough to fill the weir pool.
Mayor Barry Hollman said that it had been a particularly hard past twelve months but predicted the next twelve months will be even harder if it doesn’t rain.
“The extended period of water restrictions has resulted in Council not being able to adequately water a number of parks and gardens and these have suffered badly with most having died off,” Mayor Hollman said.
“That’s also the case with many residential lawns and gardens.
“Council will remove the many trees which have unfortunately not been able to survive the extended drought conditions. Most of these were established trees which will leave significant voids in parts of the streetscape,” he said.