Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the people of Toowoomba and the Darling Downs, I offer my condolences to those in our community who have been hit with the hardest force by this incredible display of nature over the last few months. Most importantly, our thoughts today are with the people who lost their loved ones or who suffered injury and also with the many people whose businesses, homes, cars and precious personal belongings were damaged beyond recognition or lost during the events of Monday, 10 January 2011 and later that week.

January 2011 has delivered a summer of extreme weather in all parts of our state—in fact, most parts of Australia. While many hundreds of thousands of people have been affected in eastern Australia, not least of all in Queensland’s capital, it has been the incredible images of my home town of Toowoomba that have most eloquently and most vividly illustrated the devastating impact of the flood. I am sure that all members have seen the extraordinary images of a powerful current sweeping aside cars and bridges and turning Toowoomba’s CBD into a raging river. For those of you who have visited Toowoomba before and seen the sedate nature of East Creek and West Creek, these images have been particularly shocking.

Those images have put human faces on an extreme act of nature and a force never seen before in Toowoomba—something that has resonated around the world. Indeed, in the aftermath of the floods my office was contacted by people not only from all parts of Australia but from several overseas countries concerned about what they had seen and concerned about the welfare of the people of our beautiful city and its surrounding towns. There was a universal sense of disbelief that this could happen to a city on top of a mountain. Not surprisingly, you will find that same sense of disbelief is also shared by those in my electorate who experienced this one-in-500-year event.

It is not accurate to say that Toowoomba has never prepared for the impact of flash flooding. In fact, with the help of the federal government, over the last decade the local council has put in place a comprehensive strategy for flood mitigation in the CBD. But this was flash flooding on a scale never seen in our region before, stemming from an extraordinary storm event. From speaking to people who have lived in Toowoomba all their lives and who came from families who have called the city home for generations, you get a clear idea of how extraordinary this event really was. No-one I have spoken to can recall anything like it, nor have they ever heard of anything like it in the local history files or even folklore.

It is particularly poignant that Toowoomba should come to the national consciousness in this way when, not so many years ago, our city was known for its tenacity in combating a drought and its impact on urban water supplies. For a city that just a few months ago had water storage levels of less than 10 per cent, heavy rain has been a particularly rare event in recent times. But on Monday, 10 January, that all changed.

For a city that sits on top of the Great Dividing Range in the crater of an extinct volcano—it sits 691 metres above sea level—flooding is not the norm, nor is it an expected occurrence within the CBD. Toowoomba is a bowl; it sits like that. Its centre is named after a swamp—in the local dialect, the ‘double-o, double-o’ means water. So, if you imagine a bowl like that, the only way the water gets out is on the side where the volcano crater has been eroded. The two creeks that run down to the centre meet in the CBD. Every drop of water that lands in Toowoomba south of the CBD has to pass through the CBD to get out. That is the natural formation of the city.

Coming on the back of several weeks of consistent rainfall, the ground was already soaked and the conditions were in place for the incredible scenes that were to follow as rainfall of between 150 millimetres, or six inches as my father would say, and 230 millimetres, or greater than nine inches, fell in less than one hour—nine inches of water. Over there it is 18; further down it is 27 or 36—that is three foot, or a metre. It is no wonder that a wall of water came down and created what is now known as an inland tsunami.

It hit the city without warning. I heard a story of a man who was driving across James Street; he looked down the creek in the heavy rain and said, ‘Those retention basins and the flood mitigation are working really well.’ He glanced left and saw a wall of water 15 feet high approaching the bridge. That water crashed through the centre of town but, despite what the media might think, did not go to the Lockyer Valley. I understand from the member for Parkes that it is currently out near Lightning Ridge. The event that caused the devastation in the Lockyer Valley was the same storm but involved different water.

Despite the shock and the unreal nature of the scenes from Toowoomba, there are remarkable stories of bravery and the rapid response from local people who had the courage and alertness to help those around them. Sadly, the city of Toowoomba was directly impacted with loss of life when Toowoomba woman Donna Rice and her 13-year-old son, Jordan, were swept away from their vehicle, which had been travelling along James Street just near the CBD. This loss is one that is felt by the entire community, and our hearts have gone out to Donna Rice’s partner, John Tyson, and Jordan’s 10-year-old brother, Blake, who was rescued from the flooding water as a result of an incredible act of bravery by Jordan, who insisted that rescuers save his younger brother first. These memories remain etched extremely deeply in our community’s minds.

There are, of course, stories of extraordinary bravery throughout the affected regions which serve as the much-needed life-affirming aspects such a disaster can deliver to our community. Some of these stories have been rightly honoured in the media, while there are certainly many others that will be aired as time moves on—perhaps in months; perhaps in years. Prime Minister, I thank you for the opportunity that you have presented for those people to be recognised formally in the future.

I would also like to record my sincere gratitude to our region’s police, fire brigade, ambulance and emergency service workers and volunteers for their rapid and professional response to this sudden crisis. Many risked their own lives to rescue people in danger from the flash flood. Special mention goes to the rapid water rescue team, who risked all to save people who were clinging to trees, power poles, railings and cars and were at risk of being swept away by the raging torrent.

What transpired in Toowoomba was terrible enough, but what happened in our neighbouring communities to the east, the communities of the Lockyer Valley, later that afternoon as a result of the same storm moving east is mind-numbing. I extend my sincere condolences to those communities, which I know the member for Wright will speak of shortly.

As well as Toowoomba, Oakey, 40 kilometres north-west of Toowoomba and the home of the Army’s helicopter training centre, was hit by a savage storm the following day and a significant number of houses were inundated. In fact, 15 remain uninhabitable. Fortunately, though, there was no loss of life.

Through these floods farmers in my region lost an enormous amount of crops, and the economic impact of that on our region is yet to be felt. Just one month since the flood ripped its way through the CBD, many businesses are now getting back to business and those still closed are closer to operating as usual. Incredibly, the hard work has seen places like Rowes Furniture, whose furniture was seen floating down Russell Street in those iconic images, reopen this week. It shows that that business, a business of long tradition in Toowoomba, has no intention of not being around for a long time.

Other businesses are still repairing extensive damage, but that work is well under way. The fast turnaround is testament to the community spirit and mateship of our region. In the days immediately after the flood there were reports of people who were no doubt still on their Christmas holidays turning up to volunteer in the clean-up. That is something that has been replicated in every flood community right around Australia. The Army also pitched in, of course. I echo the sentiments of the member for Wide Bay about the lift that it gives a city or a town when the Army turns up. The Army helped in the clean-up in Toowoomba while still doing search and rescue operations in the Lockyer Valley. There is also a strong determination from shoppers to support local businesses in Toowoomba. I am sure the campaign will be of great assistance to get the economy back on its feet.

I should also mention and, perhaps, thank the insurance companies—some of whom needed a little encouragement—who in the end agreed that all claims in Toowoomba would be paid out to their full value as the result of a storm event, not flood. I just warn them that I am still watching, and I will be ever vigilant.

In the days and weeks that followed, our community was very appreciative also of the visits by both the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister, as well as that by the Governor of Queensland, Penny Wensley, along with Premier Anna Bligh and several of her ministers. They, along with the local MPs, local government and community leaders and church groups helped in the rebuilding of our community’s confidence.

Of course, the repercussions of the floods will be felt for much longer. Like many other regions, Toowoomba’s transport infrastructure took a huge blow. Local roads are still being repaired and the rail network around the city and surrounding areas will be non-functioning for months. Toowoomba was cut off from the rest of the state for two days and from Brisbane for four days. It has only been in the last few days that both the up lanes on the Toowoomba range have reopened, and one down lane is still closed. In fact, the other lane is still moving north at about a millimetre a day, with a widening crack on the side of the hill. The resulting traffic jams would rival anything you have seen in Sydney, with delays of up to 2½ hours to traverse the range when the normal trip takes 10 minutes.

The railway line servicing all coal and grain industries in south-west Queensland remains shut and, as I said, may be for up to six months. The damage to the main highway again reinforces the need for an alternative route to and from Toowoomba, and it underlines the need for the Toowoomba bypass—an issue that I will ensure is further discussed and given full attention in the months ahead. I should say to the Prime Minister that I appreciated her offer to have a meeting on that matter in the near future when she visited Toowoomba on Australia Day. On that note I thank the Prime Minister again for her visit on Australia Day. That provided an enormous morale boost to our community and is part of that rebuilding process. Thank you for coming twice in such a short period.

While the physical damage of the floods can be eliminated through hard work and time, the psychological impacts of the event will be more long term, even for those people who escaped the worst of the damage. It shows the resilience of our community, and that community is working together to soothe the deepest wounds.

I would also like to pay tribute to the church leaders in our community, as well as both the paid and unpaid volunteers and counsellors—who have travelled in some cases from as far south as Victoria—and also the charities and community spirit organisations who are still working to heal the wounds of the flood. Their guidance and support have been crucial in helping our fellow residents through the darkest days, and I am certain that unwavering support will be equally important in the coming weeks.

I relate one Queensland flood story—a story of enterprise, opportunity and mateship—which so demonstrates the Australian ethos. It actually happened in Brisbane, not in Toowoomba, but I think it is a great story to tell. A friend of mine who had a unit in Brisbane that was flooded was down there on the Saturday morning just after the flood to clean it out and to get it back into order. It was in a block of units. A complete stranger walked in off the street at about eight o’clock and said, ‘Would you like a hand with a hose to clean things up?’ Peter, of course, jumped at that—every hand was vital. The stranger disappeared and re-emerged with a brand new, petrol powered pressure cleaner. He said: ‘I’ve been wanting one of these for years but my wife wouldn’t let me buy it. This morning she relented. I went straight down to the shop and bought the last one.’ He worked all day, and left with his now near-new pressure cleaner and the thanks and gratitude of all the people who were there. That is the Australian way.

In conclusion, even more than the hardships, the most significant and far-reaching consequence of these events of 10 January will be the rekindled sense of common purpose and the reach of the new bonds of mateship and camaraderie in our community. As we move forward through the recovery phase. this community spirit will be the real legacy of the floods of January 2011.

See this speech in context