DIY Build: Bunyip Water Level

What is a water level? I guess first before going into that we need to understand a few things about water.

Water finds it’s own level.

If you think about the edge of a calm lake. It’s like a big bowl. All the way around the lake where the waters edge meets land is level. That is a contour line. If you find a way to mark that line, then drain the lake that marked line would be a level contour line in the landscape.

This physical nature of water gives us a useful tool in finding level lines in landscape. All we have to do is build a tool to harness the water in a way that we can easily measure the differences.

This is exactly what the Bunyip Water Level does. The hose that is attached to the two measuring sticks is the “lake”. We get to see two sides of the lake against a yard stick. This allows us to accurately calculate the differences between two points.