Nature’s great reversal: Stormy ocean pushes back Greenough River

It’s a naturally-occurring event that attracts scores of people each year. Every winter the Greenough River, swollen with rainfall, overflows into the sea at Cape Burney. But when the storm caused by ex-tropical cyclone Mangga lashed the WA coast on Sunday, the opposite happened, according to the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation. “On this occasion, it wasn’t actually the river that overflowed into the ocean,” a spokesperson said. “Instead, the ocean inundated the river with a storm surge where water washed over a wide section of beach into the river. A small channel into the river was also created by the seawater inflow.” The unusual event was not expected to negatively impact the local ecosystem as a drop in water levels over recent months had left the estuary “quite saline”. Among those attracted by the spectacle were Scott Hishon, 28, and his two-year-old son Basil. Mr Hishon was lured to the river mouth on Tuesday after hearing tales of a fleeting bonanza of mullet. “A heap of the boys came down yesterday, so we’re just having a gander,” he said. “They were catching them by hand, just jumping on them. Big, fat mullet.”