The 1996 Queensland Floods
Normal view from the Global Office... paradise on the banks of the Brisbane river.
The water in the Brisbane river rose about 2 metres overnight and is
slowly continuing to rise. The picture on the left shows the Colleges Crossing road under water.We have just heard that the rain is expected to continue until Monday. The Wivenhoe Dam has not, as yet, been opened so we are still waiting to see whether this event will lead to a dramatic rise in the river below.
I will be posting a picture of the river below the house later today, the water level is now just below the flat grassy deck normally situated about 15 metres above the Brisbane river.
Luckily kids are able to amuse themselves. In this picture (left to right)
Sally, Andrew and Alex, the Internet kid play with a Superman City game in the family room. The family dog, Flossy, watches with obvious disdain!
The Cloete's kids our friends from South Africa, Sally and Andrew are having a real soaking introduction to what we all call sunny Queensland!
2pm - we have just heard that the Wivenhoe Dam 20 kilometres upstream from us and its feeder the massive Somerset dam are now both 70% full and that the gates will have to be opened shortly.
I am sure that tomorrow's 1996 Royal Australian Air Force Air Show will have been cancelled. What a disaster - several years in the organising.. they even expected a stealth bomber to visit the RAAF's Amberley Air Base.
As I look out of the global office the rain continues to pour down and the waters continue to rise...
When will it all end?
Later in the afternoon we learnt that Wivenhoe Dam may be opened.
I walked down to the rivers edge - now working its way up the garden stairs that used to look down on the river several metres below.
The water inched its way higher and higher, noticeably now moving up the slope.
The massive gum tree, once high above the water, had now
surrendered its base to the rising water which now stood just a few feet under the grassy platform just 12 metres below our home.
It was time to go and see what was happening up stream.. at the weir where the road had been closed.
The water here
was angry, above the weir it lapped and tugged as it tried to work its way downstream. The escape route once 10 metres below
the water line now reflected a ripping current fighting with a large water pipe. The killer rapids swirled and eddied dangerously.
There was an eery silence even though many of the residents of Karana Downs had come to look at this most frightening event.
Below the weir the water vented its fury in a myriad of changing shapes that tore at the trees standing where the river banks had
once been.
Above the weir a father showed his teenage son something of passing interest in a restricted area just centimetres from where the water flowed. One slip and one or both would have been dragged under the weir to certain death.
Fools.. fools... fools....
Don't they understand that nature is unforgiving once it grasps you in a death clamp?
Tomorrow we will know where the new level of the river will lie. I expect that it will be over the grassy platform working its way up the bank towards our home.
Now that Wivenhoe Dam has given into the fury of the flood nothing stands between us and nature. We stand alone but we live in hope.
Return to the great flood of 1996