There are moments

There are moments when you just want to take back what you said. Can I take back that I was sick of the weather, can I take back moaning how inconvenient it was? Because if I could take it back, then maybe we could take back the inland Tsunami that swept through Toowoomba and down into the Lockyer Valley killing twelve people. Maybe I could take back the fluctuating totals of missing from around 50-70 at any given time. Maybe I could take back the devastating stock losses and crop losses which will cripple this country for the next few months if not years....

Leading up to this tragedy, we had weeks of rain and Brisbane was coping. There was isolated flooding but Brisbane was coping. Then a deluge hit Toowoomba at the top of the ranges and turned into an inland tidal wave that swept cars, businesses, animals, homes and sadly people with it. We watched in horror as a family were swept away in their station wagon. Reports have come to light that the mother and child were rescued by helicopter but the father is still missing.

Wivenhoe Dam was built to protect Brisbane from a flood and it was doing its job....until the water hit Toowoomba. Wivenhoe was sitting on 160% capacity and the flood gates had been released. 200,000 megalitres of water was flowing out every hour while 1 000 000 was flowing in. BUT the Brisbane River was handling it. As the flood swept down the ranges, it picked up momentum and the rest of the water that was inundating the South East. All of that water has then dumped itself into an already swollen Brisbane river. And something had to give. The Brisbane River, Brisbane itself and its surrounding suburbs have been swallowed up by a fast rising flood. Businesses have been destroyed, lives lost and people have been afraid.

Wivenhoe Dam in 2008, during the drought.
Yesterday....

Its a scary time for everyone with the river only just beginning to peak. There are around 60 people missing, grave fears are held for their safety. Times to come will be hard as the cleanup begins.

However, through it all, our quirky sense of humour has shone through. Some wag put floaties and a snorkel on our iconic statue of Wally Lewis at Suncorp Stadium. Now that the Stadium has gone under, someone else reckons it'll be a great water polo venue. In flooded streets you can see "Wet Floor" signs. And the Mayor of Ipswich, in true Aussie style, said that looters would get "the shit kicked outta them and then used as flood markers." Thats the spirit!

The last word has to come from our Premier, Anna Bligh, who has stood fast throughout this ordeal, keeping everyone up to date. She said, "We're the ones they knock down and we get up again." We'll survive this, we'll pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off and start again....and look anxiously to the skies as cyclone season rolls in.

I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged moutain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewelled sea, her beauty- and her terror- the wide brown land for me. Thankyou Dorothy McKellar, you couldn't have said it any better.