‘A lake in the sky’: 17m-high Roseville Bridge floods as rain batters Sydney

In a sight many Sydneysiders could never have fathomed, yesterday the Roseville Bridge flooded. The rain that blasted Sydney yesterday was enough to do the trick, with torrential and unrelenting downpour proving too much for the bridge’s drainage system. The bridge filled with water, and stranded cars floated on top of the bridge.

The Northern Beaches of Sydney are only accessible by three major roads: Mona Vale Rd and the Spit and Roseville Bridges that cross the Middle Harbour. The Roseville Bridge, the bigger and busier of the two bridges with roughly 65,000 commuters crossing every day, has a 17.4-metre clearance to the water below. 

Considered a “high-level” bridge, flooding seemed impossible. But the bridge became a “lake in the sky”, and the flowing waterfall from the side led some to dub it the “Roseville Aqueduct”. 

For Sydney, especially many of its wealthy and elite who populate the Northern Beaches, the Roseville Bridge represents a key gateway to the CBD, and many were aghast to see the effects of extreme weather coming so close to the city. 

Even among the media’s elite, the shock was clear and the impacts notable. Peter FitzSimons tweeted his disbelief at the sight of cars floating on the bridge, and Juanita Phillips, ABC’s 7pm Sydney news bulletin anchor, was unable to make it to the broadcast due to the various road blockages. 

Sydneysiders may often feel as though the effects of natural disasters are worlds away. Over the past week as the devastation in Lismore unfolded, Sydney watched on, a little damp, but safe from a distance. But as the wet weather system travels south, the north of Sydney in particular is now bearing the brunt of Australia’s La Niña. 

Of the 50,000 people impacted by evacuation orders in place last night, 40,000 of them were residents of a dozen Sydney suburbs, mostly in the Northern Beaches. The Manly Dam began to overflow, and the major thoroughfare through Dee Why, Pittwater Rd, was full of water.

The city has had its wettest start to a year in history, recording 822mm at the Observatory Hill weather station in the CBD so far in 2022. It would usually take until August to accumulate that amount of rain.

While the Roseville Bridge’s flooding receded fairly quickly, many will never forget the sight. Its symbolism sends the strong message that even city-dwellers can no longer avoid the impacts of increasingly prevalent natural disasters.