All drowned out

CASSIE TWEMLOW | Communications & Marketing Officer

'Once in a lifetime', they said, 11 years ago and yet, here we were again in February. Flooded. Some were luckier than others but there was help on hand for those whose homes and businesses suffered more serious emotional and water damage.

The recent flooding of south-east Queensland left a lot of people, homes and businesses, including our St Peters community, displaced and devastated by its destruction. Declared one of Australia’s worst ever natural disasters, the ‘rain bomb’ dropped 80% of the region’s annual rainfall on Brisbane in just three days at the tail-end of February.

From desperate local drivers trying to escape flooded waters via the new pedestrian-only Indooroopilly Riverwalk, to complaints about delayed wheelie bin collection, Brisbane City Councillor, James Mackay, has heard, and seen, it all since Friday 25 February.

Local Councillor, and St Peters Old Scholar, James, has lived locally most of his life. Growing up, the worst ‘disaster’ (aside from the 2011 floods) he can recall was ankle-deep flooding of the UQ campus and Indooroopilly Canoe Club in the mid-90s. However, less than four months ago, James saw first-hand the affect the flooding had on residents in 4067, 4068 and 4069 where some of the flooding did its worst.

“On the Friday night when it started, I went down to Munro St [St Lucia] and started door knocking and telling people, already standing in water, to move their cars and get out,” James told me.

On Saturday morning, many roads in the area were closed and cars were getting towed to higher ground. By this time, residents in highrise riverside apartments were also trapped, if they hadn’t managed to escape earlier. Once Sunday arrived, the weather pattern changed from being just rain deluge to being river inundation and the levels started rising.

James explains that SEQ Water released the Wivenhoe barriers when the high tides would coincide with the heavy rainfall so a lot of different places were flooding, than had historically done so. In the 2011 floods, much of Fig Tree Pocket was underwater but since then, they have had a backflow valve installed which reduces the chance of backflow flooding by preventing water from flowing back up stormwater drainage. This meant that there were minimal homes affected by flooding this year as opposed to the hundreds in 2011.

“But I don’t want to underestimate the problem because, in parts of Indooroopilly there were entire homes’ contents on the footpath. It was heartbreaking,” James said quite emotionally. “Some of these families also have small business that have had to deal with Covid for the last two years. Now this. One guy said to me, ‘I can’t even see my shop’.” His business, along with others, was underwater in Milton.

The weekend was certainly the worst time for the flooding however, the effects didn’t stop immediately.

On Thursday 3 March, when the rain had subsided and some schools were back open, there were local students showing up to class without food. James and his team were stunned and immediately organised meals for the students as well as rallying parents to bring in spare uniforms for those that didn’t have access to them either.

Even so, there are always some wonderful stories to come from the worst situations.

James talks about one St Lucia man he met that brought down a generator to the Council barbeque so locally affected people could charge their phones. He even set up a DJ station for some much-needed entertainment and diversion. Later James found out that this ‘local hero’s’ house was under water and he was giving up his own precious time to help others.

Sir Fred Schonell Drive intersection with Mitre St, St Lucia

Kate St, Indooroopilly, outside Ambrose Treacy College

River front apartments on Sandford St, St Lucia.

Cr James Mackay with Old Scholar, Axielle Doddridge (2020), her father, Wayne Doddridge, and Pip Cook, from the Walter Taylor Office

“There were some particularly selfless people that would call me up every hour or two and tell me they have a generator, or a pump, or could deliver 30 coffees and where should they bring them. It was just fantastic to see the community come together like that.

“We delivered free Meals on Wheels via ‘Canoe-ber Eats’,” James joked. “Some people in flooded-in highrise apartment blocks were in their 70s, or over, and without power for days.”

James also salutes the tireless effort of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment whose reliability and professionalism meant that welfare checks were done on hundreds of local residents in St Lucia.

“I want to say thank you to the community for being so generous, including the St Peters Community Hub who donated more than 20 school bags with pencil cases and water bottles for Care For Kids Ltd. And thank you to those who weren’t affected, for your patience.”

Unfortunately, these ‘uncommon’ natural disaster events aren’t likely to disappear soon but let’s at least hope that we don’t get to experience another ‘once in a 100 years event’ like this again any time soon.