Australian East Coast Low Pressure System
7-10th June 2007
Local Flooding of Tuggerah Lake

Somewhere around June 6th 2007, a low pressure system developed off the coast of southern Queensland and moved south, dragging with it a trough of moisture and generating cyclonic winds that affected the Hunter, Central Coast, Sydney and Illawarra regions over a 4 day period. The result was torrential rain and gale force winds, with severe flooding affecting most of the Hunter region.

With waves generated by S-SE winds that were gusting well over 100 km/h, and steady rain, Tuggerah Lake began to rise from normal levels on Friday 8th June to about 1.2m above normal by noon on the 9th.

The highest flood point we have marked for the lake - in the 30 years since my family moved to Toukley - is 30cm below the boatshed floor (however, there are historical accounts of higher flood levels). This flood didn't quite come to the same height, but this is the fastest that I've ever seen the lake rise. Looking at the rainfall data goes some way toward explaining this. While Toukley itself receveived "only" 133mm of rain on the 8th and 31.5mm on the 9th, the Wyong area, which provides a fair chunk of the lake's catchment, had 328mm on the 8th and 62mm on the 9th. During one 15 minute interval the rain was falling there at the rate of 220mm/hr (uncorrected figures from Manly Hydraulics Laboratory).

Here are a few snapshots to illustrate (nothing very dramatic here, most of the excitement was at my father's factory at Wyong, where the trees were coming down):

Changes in the level of Tuggerah Lake from 7th to 10th June:

©Copyright NSW Department of Commerce

This plot (from uncorrected data) comes from the Manly Hydraulics Laboratory, who publish rainfall and water level data for NSW, and provide real time access to the output from their data loggers.

The Australian Bureau of Meterology (aka "the BoM") write summaries of severe weather events and they also have a monthly significant weather summary.
The summary for the East Coast Low events of June 2007 (added in October 2007) gives synoptic charts and a table outlining where each of the lows formed and what the impacts were for each one. There were five ECLs in total: impressive by any standard.

This page modified 3rd October 2007 by C.A.L.
Photos by C.A.L. and Elswyth Porter