NUNDLE was on the verge of its second major flood in seven weeks as the Peel River rose to four metres on Sunday afternoon after an estimated 90mm of rain fell in the catchment.
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On Sunday, State Emergency Service crews and Nundle Shire Council staff assessed the damage of the minor flash flood, which followed eight hours of heavy rainfall in the Crawney Hills from 3am.
The concrete slabs of the heavy vehicle low-level beside the main Nundle Bridge crossing shifted downstream and 40 campers and 15 caravans at the Nundle Caravan Park were moved to higher ground as the lower bank of the Peel River broke.
Nundle Shire Mayor Bill Hoad said council staff would seek NSW Government Natural Disaster assistance for repairs to the heavy vehicle river crossing.
Cr Hoad said the flood-prone crossing had just been repaired after the Peel River rose in January.
Yesterday SES Namoi Division Controller Peter Higgins praised local landowners for alerting the local division of heavy rainfall in the upper catchment.
State Water customer service manager Jubrahil Khan reported that the floodwaters led to a sizeable inflow in Chaffey Dam.
Up to 4pm yesterday, State Water reported that the dam had risen above 50 per cent up from 45 per cent on Saturday.
Nundle SES controller Tony Taylor said the floodwaters raged fast and furiously as the Peel River peaked.
"At 3.30pm water in the river was discoloured, then within 15 minutes it was muddy as the river rose to 3.8m at 4.20pm peaked at 4m and then dropped back to two metres at 6pm," Mr Taylor said.
"When the river reached a height of 3.5m on-call SES volunteers enacted the Nundle Flood Strategy and half a dozen residents who live on the Peel River flats, near Swap Creek and the low lying areas down from Bowling Alley point, were notified that the river was rising."
"This early warning allowed people downstream to move stock and place any valuables up high as a precautionary measure," he said.
Mr Taylor expected that the river would again rise with similar downpours in coming days.
Having headed Nundle's SES flood response for 12-years, Mr Taylor claims he and his team of volunteers know exactly how the river will react based on the amount of rain the catchment receives.
"The 2000 flood taught us a lot, it was by far the biggest the town had seen for sometime because torrential rain fell after the catchment had been saturated."
Mr Taylor said that 15 minutes after he drove over the Pearly Gate Bridge to close it off to the public in 2000 the structure was swept away.
