The Ovens River, Right Now

The live level and flow of the Ovens River at Bright — is it low and lazy or up after rain — read from the Bureau of Meteorology's town gauge, with the official flood-warning links.

[data-tool-body-wait]{display:none}This part of the page needs JavaScript, and this browser isn’t running it. Everything else on the page still reads.

This still hasn’t loaded. It looks stuck rather than slow, so reloading is worth a try now.

Reload the page Other tools for Bright

About these tools

Town Tools builds free, public tools for Bright and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

Ovens River · Bright township gauge (BoM 403205)

No current reading for Ovens River

The gauge isn’t reporting a recent value, so we won’t guess at one. The official flood-vigilance level is set by VicEmergency & VICSES.

—

Flow

discharge, cubic metres per second

—

Level

stage height at the gauge

1.39 m – 1.83 m

Recent range

lowest and highest in the last 30 days at this gauge

Worth knowing

The summer swimming holes

From around Christmas to Easter the Ovens is dammed with removable boards at Centenary Park (and at Porepunkah) to form the town swimming pools, with lifeguards on patrol in the afternoons. More water moving here means a fuller, faster pool.

It rises with rain in the ranges

The Ovens gathers from the steep country above town — Harrietville, Mount Feathertop, the Buckland. Heavy rain up there can lift the river at Bright hours later under a clear sky in town, so a fast rise after rain is the thing to check before swimming.

What the number means

The level is the river's height at the Bright gauge (metres above the gauge's own zero), not a depth you can wade or an absolute flood height. Read it against its own recent range on this page — rising, steady or falling — rather than against a fixed line.

Official channels

VicEmergency — warnings & incidentsThe single official source for Victorian flood, fire and storm warnings.

Bureau of Meteorology — Victorian flood warningsFlood watches and warnings for the Ovens River and the rest of Victoria.

VICSES — current warningsState Emergency Service; call 132 500 for flood and storm assistance.