Still Here

As everyone is no doubt aware, Queensland has been hit with a catastrophe of enormous proportion, with lives and homes lost.  Our thoughts go out to all those affected by this terrible situation.

The day I was to move, we had experienced some constant rain, and when the removalists arrived they would not bring the truck onto the property for fear of getting it bogged. Something I could not comprehend from two big burly truck drivers who said they had been driving for 20 years....

If you ask me though  they sent a monster pumpkin to pick up a pimple.  The truck was enormous, but was the only one available at the time due to the other trucks being stranded all over the flooded State.

I was disappointed, but as the days went by, and after the tragedy in Toowoomba when  that dreadful inland tsunami  went through the main street and continued on to the Lockyer Valley, smashing everything in its path, I have come to realise that I am so fortunate to be here, high and dry, even though we now cannot get off the property after the unrelenting rain where we received 6 inches overnight which overflowed the dam.

The bitumen road just outside the gate has water running under it, and is really squishy and bouncy to walk on, so we dont know how much water is under there, or if there is a hole so are waiting on the authorities to come out today to inspect it.

We have food, and safety which is more than so many people all over this country. Next cities  being  hit are Ipswich and Brisbane, and the floods are expected to peak higher than the infamous 1974 floods.  So all my problems have paled into insignificance and I just feel for all the people affected.

I grew up living beside  the Brisbane River, and saw King tides and flooding, but nothing like what is happening now.  But then Brisbane was a sleepy safe city to grow up in. Where we lived we had to travel across the river each day in a ferry to go to school, and then work and shopping, and I do have memories of travelling in that small boat across a raging river and surviving.

Looking down the driveway on the left the topsoil has gone and it is down to rock

The road outside  the gate where the water is running under the road

this is a hole gouged in the rock after the 6 inches of rain overnight

An unbelievable  deep hole (about 2feet) gouged in the rock base

So my friends I have re-connected to the internet for the time being, and now just have to sit and wait, but in the end I still have somewhere to go, and my possessions, and my life, which is more than so many other Queenslanders have right now. It is really a sad day for Australia.