Here we go again. Brisbane is going under in floods that threaten to outstrip the devastating 1974 floods. Brissos have been reassured over the past 20 years or so that this kind of flooding would never happen again due to improvements in dams and other infrastructure. This myth was perhaps a product of spin linked with the real estate industry. Many Brissos who watched riverfront homes and suburbs go under in 1974 were astonished to see property prices in these areas steadily climb to record highs in recent years. No doubt the property owners were equally astonished to see Rates climb as well in these flood prone areas. Brissos, who have many characteristics of Australian bushies (“We’ll all be rooned, said Hanrahan”), have always been skeptical about the alleged flood proofing of the city and have long suspected that the term ‘once in a lifetime event’ may well have been coined with family pets in mind.
This current flood is indeed of biblical proportions. At times like this Brissos parochialism is submerged along with the houses and footy fields, with appreciation of the widespread nature of the disaster…knowledge that many other Queensland cities, towns and regions have been inundated with flood waters and that many have fewer resources and support systems to cope with such devastation. There’s also awareness that floods know no boundaries – affecting towns and regions south of the border.
At least two thirds of the previously drought ridden state of Queensland is underwater. Given that Queensland’s land mass is approx 1 730 648 sq kilometers (about 7 times the size of the UK, and over 3 times the size of France) this means that the area under flood, about 1,142,000 square kilometers, is twice the area of France and between 4 and 5 times the size of the UK.
Brissos like these comparisons which dwarf European countries as they’ve suffered the indignity of being forced (at school) to study the literature, language and culture of these countries ahead of the literature, language and culture of Australia, let alone Brisbane (which is indeed a vast field of study in itself).
Like most people, Brissos understand water flows and the principles of gravity. As such Brissos watched in disbelief at images of flash floods in Toowoomba a couple of days ago, that city that is elevated way above sea level, perched on that high ridge of the Great Dividing Range overlooking Brisbane and its surrounds. Even the most laconic and phlegmatic of Brissos must be unnerved by the prospect of the “wall of water” heading towards their city – coming from the west, from other flooded areas and from the Dams that are going through ‘controlled release’.
























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