“Stay out of the water - you’ve got the problem of the sanitation of the water, but also the possibility of bull sharks and being eaten,” he said. “I never would have thought I would ever have seen a bull shark in the main street of Goodna.”
I am now in Perth but my family is in Toowoomba, Lockyer Valley and Brisbane. Partners family is in Rockhampton so they have all experienced the rain.
I went through the 74 floods in Brisbane and never want to experience that again.
At least here I only have to worry about bushfires at the moment.
I don’t think she’ll mind me saying but Primaflora is OK and out of the danger zone.
But I do have another (non-Doper) friend in Brisbane who I have not heard from…will have to check that she’s OK.
This footage was shown on my local news station the last few broadcasts, here in Vancouver.
Whether or not the media is being dramatic doesn’t really negate the fact that this is a real tragedy, especially for the smaller towns. Hope you folks are staying safe and staying dry.
Hey, I haven’t seen Primaflora 'round these parts for YEARS. Tell her, “Howdy” from me, OK? 
And best wishes for your friends too Duke. Hope they’re faring well.
Hmmm, nahh … pussy cat.
Just out back in Sydney from a quick trip to my parents who are in Echuca. The Murray there is looking pretty good. However it was running a banker at Barham and looking magnificent and I got a good photo at Barmah on the way back today.
The Murray is looking magnificent at the moment. Here in Corowa it’s come down again from bursting it’s banks, and down at Barmah (as mentioned by Penultima Thule) it’s flooded the Redgum forests so nicely as to keep them going for another 30 years or so. Despite the devastation of flooding, it’s also a delight to see the ecosystem being rehydrated and revitalised…might be a massive toll for us humans, but the rest of ‘mother nature’ is having a great time at the moment.
I live on the Gold Coast in South-East Queensland but fortunately haven’t been troubled by the flooding. A few roads blocked further into the Hinterlands but nothing near me. Terrible scenes on TV and Youtube, hopefully the worst of the flooding is over now and the rivers are beginning to return to normal levels. The clean-up operation will be going on for a long time to come though, some people have only just finished rebuilding their homes from previous floods and now they lose everything again. I wonder how many will up sticks and go live somewhere else.
“ecosystem being rehydrated and revitalised”
Yes and no.
Would have been good if nature had been left to it’s own course. Did you notice all the fish kills due to the black water created by the Green lobby’s forest flooding policy?
I am in awe of the organisation and the efficiency of the QLD government and all of the associated agencies who are now dealing with the flood clean-up and recovery efforts.
Anna Bligh giving two-hourly press-conferences during the crisis was just amazing in itself. Now the efforts of the Brisbane Council, organising volunteers, arranging rubbish pickups and co-ordinating the whole sheebang is something of which every local government authority around the world should be in envy: take notes folks, this is how the REAL professionals do things.
Kudos Queensland, you’re doing yourself proud. 
Yeah, Anna Bligh holds press conferences while other people actually organise and do something.
She is not the Brisbane Council- that is Campbell Newman heading it. She is not local government. She is State Government.
Exactly. Anyone can hold a press conference; the people who are actually getting on with fixing the problem (and not simply getting their mug on TV while scoring trendy politically correct points for having a sign-language interpreter there as well) should be the ones getting the pat on the back and the acknowledgement.
Don’t bitch, you could be stuck with Kennealy. She offends me as a Labour voter, woman AND an American expat. She’s an unholy trifecta of stupidity as far as I’m concerned.
She’s probably on her knees praying Sydney floods…
Cicero and Martini, did you actually READ my post boys?? I’ve lived through plenty of ‘natural disasters’, and never yet seen a leader so able to give such accurate and timely updates to the citizens.
And sure, this is due to the tireless work of people behind the scenes, doing the hard grunt and getting no public credit.
My bolding.
I read your post, I just think you’re giving Ms. Bligh far more praise than she deserves.
You know why she’s able to give such “accurate and timely updates”? Because she’s got an army of staff giving her the info via modern communication methods which didn’t exist in 1974. You could have had Bevan The Work Experience Kid as the centrepiece of Official Press Conferences giving the same information out on national television, but I doubt there’d be people praising him for being awesome.
Ms. Bligh has to be seen to be doing something, so I’m glad she was at least doing something constructive (in the form of keeping people updated about what was going on), but every time I wandered past the TV at work the coverage seemed to be “Nothing’s changed recently except the Missing People List has been revised again ; here’s one of our reporters standing by a flooded riverbank telling us that nothing’s changed since their last report from the same flooded riverbank an hour ago.”
The media whipping everyone into a frenzy over the whole thing didn’t help either, but that’s probably a different thread entirely…
I think their point may be that all the media is full of the Anna Bligh Hero of the Hour schtick on the basis of two things:
She has acted like any ordinary real person and not a politician
She has done a better job than Julia Gillard.
I personally think that both those things are pretty ordinary achievements and from my experience working with politicians, the former is probably fake and scripted for her.
On edit beaten to it I see.
Kambuckta, the above two posts summarise what I could say.
I realise my post my have come across more challenging than I wished and for that I apologise.
I do not apologise for my take on her. : "We Qlder’s get knocked down (blubber) and stand up again (blubber once more).
The Qld State of Origin side did not get a justified reputation for toughness by being pansies.
She is using every political heart string pulling available- “I’d like to look into insurance”- well yes, we all would. However, it is not a state matter.
After that rant I will close by saying I believe every state govt in Australia has major problems- she is just acting as a show pony.
Gleena, we are stuck with Barnett who is very much “day at the beach” stuff. However the opposition here is so bad they can’t even organise a coup to get rid of Eric Ripper, who is probably a nice person. He is just bland and really means no change.
So I’ll go out and buy some boxing gloves for Kambuckta and myself and then we can get back to the real purpose of this thread