Recent research after bed-moving flow events has shown that local disturbance history can contribute to patchiness in stream communities. Patterns of recolonisation were studied following experimental disturbances in which patches of sediment were manipulated by removing 10 cm of surface sediment (scour) or by depositing 10 cm of clean sediment (fill) on top of existing sediments. Six invertebrate samples were collected from each patch type (including stable control patches) on five occasions up to six weeks after the manipulation. Immediately after the disturbance, distinctive macroinvertebrate communities occurred in scour, fill and stable patches. Community composition in scour patches remained distinct from fill and stable patches for the entire study period. Immediately after the manipulation, scour patches contained higher densities of hypogean taxa than did fill patches, but this difference did not persist for long, indicating that the relict community had little influence on the subsequent pattern of recovery. In contrast, fill patch communities were indistinguishable from stable patches by Day 14, most likely owing to recolonisation by buried invertebrates and invertebrate drift. Differences in patterns of recolonisation following different types of disturbance can result in patchy invertebrate communities that persist for several weeks after the disturbance.