A new poem

I have had a few words floating around in my head for a some days now, so today I sat down to write them, the result is on Vesta-poetry.

Since I took the photos, the army has been into Colleges Crossing and is working daily to clear trees and debris, they have been amazing.

We will be back to normal one day, but until then, we will keep smiling and working together.

Oh my goodness!

Our beautiful river park looks like a bomb has exploded in it

This is the entrance to the park

The water was so deep over this area that the grass and gas BBQ was left in place, while trees and infrastructure was wiped out.

This is all that is left of our wonderful picnic spots



Colleges Crossing was under 2m of mud, volunteers cleared and cleaned it. The water is still very high, because there are huge trees underneath blocking the flow of water.

 Elizabeth and I went out for a drive as the sun set last night, we joined hundreds of residents exploring the park. The shock and sadness felt by everyone was palpable, so much devastation.

Before & After photos

As the water rose, the swings were threatened and eventually were under water

Yesterday 22/01/11 - just 11 days after the flood we visited our lovely park & the devastation was horrible.

As the water rose, the trees were submerged, but we didn't expect the following.

This is what the road now looks like.

This was the toilet block, under water.

This is all that is left of it, with another building from somewhere crashed into it

Trees were snapped off like twigs - a disaster zone and this is just one park out of hundreds.

My amazing brother

My beautiful, amazing brother sent us through a link to YouTube this morning - he has recently (in the last couple of months) bought a piano and has been teaching himself to play.

He dedicated and played this beautiful piece of music Watermark to all of us in Queensland who have now passed the high water mark.

Thank you Ian.

This photo made me laugh when I looked at it - Really 'No through road?'

And who said we didn't have a river view?
This block of land normally looks out onto a walking track with no river view.

Flood photos

I will be posting over the next couple of days a series of photos and thoughts. I was fortunate to have my family and my home safe during this terrible devastation that has hit our suburb.

These first few were taken of the same area just a few hours apart.

This photo was taken on Jan 11th at 3.46pm. The people in these houses were desperately clearing their possesions.

January 12th - 6.08am. A shed had lodged against this house - a double story under water.

What a disaster and this was only one house out of over 400 in our suburb.

We have power!

Not sure how long it will last - but we have electricity at last.

It went out at 11pm Tuesday night and today is Sunday 2.40pm.

We are all safe - no personal damage - just isolation for a couple of days.

Four hundred houses in our suburbs damaged.

Many completely destroyed.

Thank you all for your wishes.

Comparison photos

This photo was taken during our previous flood around Christmas when the flood was at 6 metres. The swings that Sarah is playing on, features in the following photos.

Park & Swings taken at 8am this morning.

Park & Swings taken at 4pm this afternoon.

These three photos show the devastation and the speed at which the rivers are rising.  This park is at the confluence of two rivers - the Bremer & the Brisbane rivers. The Bremer is due to peak at 11pm tonight and could reach as high as 18m.
Brisbane river is still rising and tomorrow we are going to have a King Tide at 3pm, as Brisbane is a tidal river this is going to make the situation worse.

Our good news is that we are safe and dry.

Rain and flood photos

One of our local roads - 1 metre flood water

The river has overcome all its banks.  Sarah was swinging on these swings a couple of weeks ago.

Flooded front garden - what a sight!

Ivan used his strength to move the water away from the front

Sarah helping clear the front patio