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2011 Flood
The rains came for Christmas 2010.
Tropical Cyclone Tasha approached Cairns, arriving at dawn on Christmas Day. Tasha was a weak system, yet it produced heavy rain and gale force winds over the North Tropical Coast. Moving further south, it continued to bring intense rainfall to the central and southern interior of Queensland, resulting in record breaking floods in the Fitzroy River catchment, as well as parts of the Burdekin and Condamine Rivers and the Wide Bay and Burnett region. Rain was forecast into January, and by the 7th, weather systems converged on the Burnett River catchment area again. Heavy rainfall resulted in major flooding along the Mary River catchment and around the Sunshine Coast.
The first warning for South-East Queensland was issued on the 6th January.
The 10th brought the unthinkable: a torrent of water swept through Toowoomba's city centre, a 3m wall of water that brought flash flooding, and death, to the top of the mountain. The Lockyer Valley was next, with Grantham hit the hardest, and more lives lost.
As the rain continued, the Bremer and its creeks rose, and Ipswich braced for a flooding event not experienced since that Australia Day weekend back in 1974.
On the 12th January, at 1:45 in the afternoon, the Bremer reached its peak of 19.4m. This was just short of the 20.7m peak of 1974 and well short of the 24.5m peak of February 1893, but like its predecessors, the muddy water of the Bremer River would leave its mark:
* 25 per cent of Ipswich was under water.
* 1,100 people sought shelter at evacuation centres, 3,000 more with family and friends.
* 7,221 buildings, including 3,000 homes, were flood affected, with some of the worst hit suburbs being Basin Pocket, North Booval, Goodna, Karalee and Barellan Point.
* Close to 500 business were closed, and the only shoppers at St Ives, Goodna, were the bull sharks.
* 43 Ipswich streets, as well as main roads, were cut.
* 25 people, mostly from Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley, had lost their lives.
The rain had stopped by the 13th, the day after the muddy brown flood waters reached Brisbane, inundating the CBD and other low laying areas. As the flood water receded, the stench of mud permeated the air, but that did not deter the 'Mud Army', 4,000 strong in Ipswich. The respite from the weather was short lived for Queensland, as Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi crossing the North Tropical Queensland coast on the 3rd of February.
Picture Ipswich is fortunate to have a collection of oral histories, collected in the months after the flood. In these oral histories, people describe the smell of the mud -- "the smell was appalling, and there was certain sediment around" -- fire crews coming into houses to house down interior walls -- "I just couldn't picture my house being gerni-ed inside and out, but they need to" -- the loss of furniture and cherished items -- "my dishes aren't there. They're not the same dishes" -- the people who turned up to help -- "every Tom, Dick and Harry was here. Like, people I worked with out at work, a few of them turned up" -- and the experience of returning home -- "I found it quite eerie, and I've had to start again. It's a different house."
References (offline)Margaret Cook, 'A River With a City Problem', 2019, University of Queensland Press.
Picture Ipswich | Ipswich Libraries 2011 Floods Oral History Collection.References (online)'Flood summary for the Bremer River at Ipswich - December 2010 and January 2011', Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology