Regulator on its way out.

The Clayton 'regulator' or the remains of it, are now being removed. How it was to be done was a mystery to me and many others and of course the success of a complete rehabilitation is not certain. The machine being use for this section of the removal work seems better suited to the job than the short reach backhoes used for the breaching of the regulator during the high water. The machine currently being used looks to be able to reach a good 5 meters below the surface and the operators have taken their work platform right down to water level so it looks at times as though they are driving on the surface of the water. The syphon pipes have been removed and as of today they look to have removed half of the remaining regulator.
It is to be hoped that the flow returns to its original path and scoures out the build up of sediment and sand along the Hindmarsh Island shore. It would be a shame if one of the casualties of the regulator construction was the historic Rankine's crossing and the wharf and loading area at Riverside historic shearing sheds. The low water revealed the construction used for the landings on the Clayton side were a corduroy of logs and limestone, with a protective pen of vertical rough cut posts that protected a vessel about 25' long, the remains of which were there on the bottom. At one time the waist high ruins of a limestone cart shed stood on the Clayton side but they were flatted, possibly by teenagers doing the kind of thoughtless damage I did at that age. I understand that a cart was kept in this shed and when the Riversiders wanted to go to Strathalbyn they swan a horse across, hitched up and of they went. Upon return the cart was returned to the shed, the goods transferred to a boat and the horse again swam back to Riverside. It would be nice to have some of this history researched and displayed at the point for locals and visitors to see and appreciate.