THE water in the Macleay River has been brown since Christmas, and rumour has it this is because Kempsey Shire Council allowed a Chinese company to mine alongside the river somewhere.
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The rumour is of course nonsense - there is no mining and, even if there was, it would not be up to the council to approve it.
Council’s Infrastructure Services director Robert Scott said the upper catchment had been in a dire state for some time, and rainfall up river before and soon after Christmas had most likely resulted in the river’s colour change.
“The upper catchment received intense rainfall two weeks ago and although it may be unusual for the colour of the river to be affected two weeks later, it could also be a result of the floods from last year," Mr Scott said.
“What we’re seeing is consistent with storm cell activity from (late) last year which shows on the 20th and 23rd of December there were minor falls, and the river levels also rose 1.2m on December 27 at George’s Junction.”
Mr Scott said the rain had resulted in a relatively high level of erosion from the run-off.
Mr Scott said river levels were easing and the colour of the river should go back to normal in the next few days.
Armidale resident Jason Watt was camping at East Kunderang homestead, about 10km up river from the Junction with his wife and three children a few days before Christmas when heavy rainfall in Walcha and Armidale caused the river to rise about 2.2m.
“There was quite a bit of rain on Christmas night. We had to lay low until the river went down so we could get out,” he said.
"I was able to get my wife and three boys into a canoe and get them out to safety on Friday (28) but I had to wait until Saturday (29) with the car until I could get out and move it.
“The water was still quite high when getting it out, there was still water coming up to the bonnet of the car.”
Mr Watt said he believed the colour of the Macleay River was because of rainfall which had washed dirt and debris down the river.
“It’s really dry up there, there have been bushfires there as well,” he said.
“There’s no green grass so when it rained all that dirt and erosion would have just washed into the river.
“We camp there all the time and that’s the first time anything like that has happened so I’m not surprised it caused the colour of the water to change.”
