flood | The Lattimore Acre

Books by the Pallet! {visit 2}

Queensland Flood Recovery – Brassall State School

My second week volunteering at Brassall State School made the enormity of the task at hand very clear . The donations are still coming in…. with a pallet of books coming from Tasmania, a Brisbane high school making donations just to mention a few. People’s generosity is breath taking…….. so so so lovely. There is some extraordinary books – three quarters of the library is filled with boxes!! There is still no computer system…. which maybe is not such a bad thing as the books all have to be cleaned, sorted, stamped, covered, bar-coded and then cataloged. It is overwhelming to look at the sheer amount of books and resources ….. better to focus on one box at a time. Hopefully Mum and I can make a little difference.

Linking up with Blessed Little Nest – Life made lovely Monday

Books by the Pallet! {visit 1}

Queensland Flood Recovery – Brassall State School

Ipswich is still recovering from recent flooding. It will be for some time. I felt that I hadn’t really helped in the recovery enough. We had made donations when needed but that almost felt too easy considering what people were going through. So with Ben settled into Pre-Prep I have time on my hands to lend a hand. I signed Mum and I up at Brassall State School. The library lost everything! It is so uplifting to see the donations, from the public, publishers, church groups, other schools or community organisations. Books are coming from everywhere and by the pallet!! There is a huge job ahead to cover and process all the resources and this is where we can help. I will volunteer either on a Monday or Tuesday for the next…. however many weeks – covering books. Every hand makes a difference xoxo

Brisbane floods: before and after

I thought these two news items on the ABC web site were a great use of tech for visualisation of the flooding around Brisbane and Ipswich.

Part 1: Milton (Lang Park), Rosalie, Rocklea (Markets), Fairfield, South Bank, Brisbane (overview), Bundamba (Ipswich), Riverside (CBD), Rocklea (wide view), Basin Pocket (Ipswich), Chelmer, Milton (Coronation Drive), Bellbowrie and Riverhills, Jindalee, St Lucia (University of Queensland), Toowong, West End, Graceville, New Farm, Yeronga.

Part 2: Floating pallets in Rocklea industrial estate, Rocklea industrial area, Ipswich farmhouse, Houses in Elmes Road, Ipswich, Riverfront homes in West End, Cow takes refuge on Ipswich roof, HMAS Diamantina in ‘dry dock’ at South Bank, Trucks and cows stranded by floodwaters on Ipswich Road at Rocklea, Riverhills Rowing Club, Jindalee Swimming Pool, Toowong CityCat terminal, River Walk floating walkway New Farm, Eagle Street Pier, Milton business precinct, Riverfront restaurant in Milton, Rosalie Village, Albion Park Raceway, University of Queensland running track and tennis courts St Lucia, Debris in Brisbane River near Pinkenba, Homes in Fig Tree Pocket, Homes and streets in Fairfield, Moggill Ferry, Industry on Donaldson Road Rocklea, Riverfront homes in Tennyson, West End parkland, Two men in a floating ‘spa’ in Chelmer.

These images or PhotoMaps are provided by NearMap. Here you can see the entire region with a time scale across the top. Move the slider to the left for the “before” images.

View Large Map

Ipswich & Brisbane Floods January 2011

Well there has been an amazing response to the flooding in Queensland in December and January. The media coverage by almost any channel is extensive, although some is a little more sensational than necessary.

Our experience was only very minor perhaps even insignificant compared to the total devastation seen in most other areas. The rain on Monday night (10th) and Tuesday all day was unbelievable. Very heavy, constant and loud. The water running off our land (some of which was coming from our neighbour) was in deep sheets and torrents, carving out ruts in a few places.

All this was heading to the local waterway, Ironpot Creek just below our western boundary. As we have only been in this house less than a year, we were unsure of how the reported ’74 flood levels would impact us.

We were watching out the window and through the trees we could see the rising waters getting closer. In this photo you can see the water coming in behind our chickens.

A walk down our northern boundary towards Ironpot Creek and we realised just how much water was heading toward Ipswich (Ironpot Creek flows into the Bremer River at Brassall just upstream of Hancock’s Bridge).

The rain finally backed off on Tuesday afternoon, and subsequently the water in the creek dissipated fairly quickly. We would be lying if we said we weren’t a little nervous on Tuesday. The pictures of Toowoomba were very distressing and on everyone’s mind.

A quick look around and you realise the extent of damage in some areas is unbelievable. The support response around Ipswich has been fantastic (as it has been throughout Queensland). We look forward to providing assistance in the coming weeks and months.