Angie Cheshire looks out of her idyllic cottage on the banks of the Murrumbidgee and rejoices at the renewed state of the river.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"It's flowing beautifully," she said. She might yet swim in it this summer.
It's very different from the miserable condition it was in before the recent rains from heaven. "It was quite awful," she said.
Before the down-pours, the flow of water was so light and inconsequential that it was forming stagnant pools by the Tharwa Bridge. There was barely enough force of water to get any forward movement.
But the flow is now back again. It's coming back to its old self.
As Angie Cheshire stands on the bank, she waits for it to be just right for a swim. The depth is there but the current is a little too swift at the moment.
And the sand is silted with ash in the water flowing from Mount Tennent behind the home she had to leave in the face of fire.
But now she has hope. "It's too fast now but when it settles down it'll be perfect," she said.
The rain has also been a joy as it drummed down reassuringly on the tin roof of the old rabbiter's cabin she has lived in for ten years.
In that decade, she has seen the river in all its states. It hasn't been as full as it is now for the past three or four years. It's like a sick old friend come back to fitness.
"It's a part of my life," she said.
The rains have transformed the whole Tharwa area.
There is greenery in the hills, and greenery lifts the spirits, Karim Haddad of Tharwa Valley Forge said.
Paddocks now had a "green shimmer". "There's something very relaxing about green," he said.
"Before, it was like sepia.
"The river had almost stopped before Christmas. The river had dried."
It's flowing so much now that there's a steady flow of people arriving under the bridge and clicking snaps in wonderment at the water.
Creeks feeding into the river have over-flowed, in some cases creating barriers for cars and trucks, either with the trees and foliage swept down from the fire-burnt mountain or, occasionally, with dead animals.
ACT government road gangs were out clearing away debris.
The area has an air of clean-up and coming back to life after catastrophe by fire and drought - assuming the rains do continue.
Dams in the area are up from empty to half and even two-thirds full, according to Denis Evans who hikes frequently in the area and who, as a Professor Emeritus in physics at the ANU, understands the science of the place.
Previous rains, he said, never created enough run-off to get into the dams. They would only green the grass but not get much further.
That seems to be different now.
"It's hopeful," he said, not just because of the current replenishment of the essential water supply for farmers but for the future.
"It means that if the fires come back in February, the fire-fighters will have water in the dams."
But nobody is talking about the return of fire at the moment.
The earth is wet, fires are a memory, the Murrumbidgee is flowing.
Angie Cheshire hopes she can swim before winter comes.