Second flood in two years weighs on Lockyer Valley


Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 29/01/2013

Reporter: Peter McCutcheon

Flooding continues to affect thousands of people across Queensland and those in the town of Laidley in the Lockyer Valley are cleaning up after their second flood in as many years.


CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: The flood crisis in Queensland continues tonight with more than 7,000 people displaced in the regional city of Bundaberg.

While the state capital escaped with relatively few properties flooded, its water treatment plants have been damaged and Brisbane residents are being urged to conserve water. And the death toll has risen to four, with a young child dying after being hit by a falling tree in suburban Brisbane.

To the west, the township of Laidley in the Lockyer Valley has begun cleaning up after its second major flood in as many years.

From Laidley, Peter McCutcheon reports.

PETER MCCUTCHEON, REPORTER: It's an all-too-familiar scene.

You would have done this before, no doubt.

MAN: Unfortunately, yes.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Second time in two years?

MAN: Yep, all too soon.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Thousands of properties throughout Queensland are being hosed down and swept up. This newsagency in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, was swamped in flood waters more than a metre deep.

This was worse than 2011?

MAN II: By 30 centimetres, yep.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Did you think you'd see something like this so soon after 2011?

MAN II: I certainly wasn't wishin' it, no.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: A mud army of volunteers was out in force in Laidley today after more than 120 of the town's residents spent last night in evacuation shelters.

Can you make sense of this?

GRAEME DIAMOND, LAIDLEY FOODWORKS: No. It's madness. Two years ago, just as mad. This time it's madder. And the mud is different. The mud's thicker, chocolatey-er and stickier and deeper. It's crazy.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: It's all hands on deck at the local supermarket where getting rid of damaged food is a health priority. For the owners this is hard work, both physically and emotionally.

NOELENE DIAMOND, LAIDLEY FOODWORKS: I know it's only stuff, but it's our stuff and it's hard. It's really, really hard. So people have a bit of an idea, when they shop at their supermarket next, when you're pushing your trolley along, imagine an inch above your trolley handle, that's where the water was at our supermarket, you know. Life's a b***h.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: This is the worst part of a flood, the filthy, stinking cleanup work that has to be done as soon as the flood waters recede. Now the people here in Laidley have a lot of work ahead of them, but for thousands of people in Brisbane and Ipswich, they're celebrating the fact that they've been spared this fate.

Yesterday the Otto family, who live just outside of Ipswich, were frantically moving their possessions to higher ground.

24 hours later, they're putting it all back.

Did you really think you'd be doing this this time yesterday?

VERA OTTO: No, no I didn't, actually, I did not. And even a week ago I didn't think I'd be doing what I was doing at the weekend, ya know, so. Make no plans, guys, make no plans.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The Brisbane River peaked at the city centre around midday today. Some properties were flooded, but nowhere near the thousands predicted.

CAMPBELL NEWMAN, QLD PREMIER: I'm not prepared to say that no-one has been flooded, there will have been properties that have been flooded, but it is minimal and I'm sure there are many, many people who are thankful for being spared the repeat of 2011.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: But there's a problem. This is a particularly dirty flood that is playing havoc with the city's water treatment.

CAMPBELL NEWMAN: This is the deal. This is what we'd like you to do, please. We'd like you to only use water for cooking, for drinking, for washing, showering and bathing and to completely cease using water for topping up pools, washing down driveways, cleaning boats and cars for the next coupla days or until further notice.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The Queensland Premier spent the morning in a region he describes as the centre of the state's flood crisis, the regional city of Bundaberg.

CAMPBELL NEWMAN: It's the sad, depressing scene that I've seen all too often in the last few years with these floods. It's the terrible debris, the terrible smell. Today we've got a strong smell of fuel and every now and then you see something that's obviously some person's prized possession. It's just people's lives floating by. It's just awful.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: It's the city's worst flood in living memory. More than 7,000 people displaced, 1,500 still living in emergency shelters.

Defence Force and civilian helicopters have airlifted a staggering 1,000 people to safety after their homes were cut off by fast-moving water and the Airforce has been called in to evacuate more than 150 patients from the local hospital to Brisbane.

???: It can be a little unsettling for them, I think, but again we'll just reassure them as best as we can and make the flight as comfortable as we can for them.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: This is a disaster stretching for thousands of kilometres along the Queensland and NSW coasts and will continue well into next week. As flood waters peak in one part of the country, they recede elsewhere, and so the focus changes from survival to recovery. With the mud still fresh and food still rotting, Grahame Diamond is already thinking of the future with a plea for his customers to come back.

GRAEME DIAMOND: Look after the locals who are putting in all this maintenance and fixing up their town and make the town strong again like it was pre-flood and pre-the last flood.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Peter McCutcheon reporting.