This page not pretty, but it works. It is a construction site and a changing draft. It reflects the progress of Dept of Environment & Water (DEW) developing a far more friendly user interface, expected in a year or two. Thus, this site will change as that facility changes, and eventually this site will be unnecessary.
Rainfall and stream flow data for Vulkathunha – Gammon Ranges, and the station country west to Leigh Creek, from 1988 to now.
This is part of SEG‘s Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges hydrological project, in the North Flinders Ranges, South Australia.
| Pluviometers | Validated DEW | Recent DEW | This Week BOM | All Records DEW | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arcoona Bluff | here | here | here | ||
| Exclosure | here | here | here | ||
| Maynards Well | here | here | here | ||
| Mocatoona | here | Not telemetered | Not telemetered | here | |
| North Moolooloo | here | here | here | ||
| Pfitzners Well | here | here | here | ||
| Plateau | here | here | here | ||
| Sambot | here | Not telemetered | Not telemetered | here | |
| South Branch | here | here | here | ||
| Stream Gauge | Arcoona Creek Flow | here | Not Avail | Not Avail | here |
| Arcoona Creek Level | here | here | Not Avail |
Validated DEW. Data is generally validated yearly, so will lack the last few months. The start date is the inception of that pluvio.
Recent DEW. This data fills the gap. It is generally collected and collated daily, but will lack the last two days.
This week BOM. This data is convenient, but might occasionally be unavailable.
All records DEW. All data in the rows above ultimately derive from here. Not so convenient, but If something above breaks, or other data is required, the WaterConnect site has lots of parameter options.
Telemetry Normally data is retrieved several times a day via Telstra mobile phone network, which can occasionally fail. Mocatoona and Sambot are not telemetered and require a visit and manual retrieval of data loggers, so can be a year behind.
Validation. One of the aims of the rainfall and stream flow monitoring carried out by SEG in the Northern Flinders Ranges is for data to be collected to a standard that makes it compatible with state and national monitoring programs such as those run by the South Australian Government and the Bureau of Meteorology.
The Department of Environment & Water of South Australia (DEW) store the data collected by SEG in the State surface water archive and publish it on the Water Connect web-site.
Before submitting data to DEW, it is validated to ensure it is free from errors caused by equipment error or failure. The validation process includes:
- Adjustment for data logger clock drift
- Removal of spurious data introduced by calibration or time checks
- Quality coding of data according degree of confidence in its accuracy
- Plausibility check of data against surrounding sites
Other points regarding data integrity.
‘Recent DEW’ and ‘This Week BOM’ data may include errors as they have been directly sourced via Telemetry, thus not validated.
‘Recent DEW’ data spans a day from 6 AM one day until 6 AM the next. This differs from the Bureau of Meteorology convention of 9 AM to 9 AM.
‘Recent DEW’ rainfall for today is not final, because it might continue raining.
For ‘Recent DEW’ rainfall other than today’s, daily data is the daily total of rainfall. This contrasts with River Level and other similar parameters, where the value is the daily mean. Thus it won’t show the max height of a flash flood that subsides quickly. If that’s important, look through ‘All Records DEW’
Map and elevation cross section.
Locations of interest, left to right, Aroona Dam, Leigh Creek South, Copley, Mount Serle, Mount McKinlay, Balcanoona.
Pluviometer sites, left to right, North Moolooloo, Pfitzner’s Well, Maynard’s Well, Mocatoona, Exclosure, Arcoona Bluff, South Branch, Sambot Waterhole, Gammon Plateu.
Stream depth gauge, not shown, is 300 metres north east of Exclosure Pluvio.
Catchments as shown, plus Mt McKinlay Creek. Gammon Plateau Pluvio is at its north boundary.
To create a similar web-scraper yourself.
Install curl. The following command will download data direct from WaterConnect to your computer.
curl "https://www.waterconnect.sa.gov.au/_layouts/15/WMTV/Data.ashx/TimeSeriesDataCSV" --data "A0040522|DAILY" -o the_pathname_of_your_destination_file
For hourly data, substitute HRLY for DAILY, and for other pluvios change A0040522 as follows. North Moolooloo A5100512, South Branch A0040521, Pfitzners Well A5100515, Arcoona Bluff A0040522, Maynards Well A5100514, Exclosure A0040518, Plateau A0040517, Arcoona Creek A0040520
