Queenslanders throwing tens of thousands of lives into utter chaos at least a
dozen people died if you live through it this program is going to rekindle some
very very powerful emotions if you weren't here what's coming up will quite
astound you
1974 was the year the River City became the city in the river
Festival Hall Brisbane 1999 to this day no show inside has ever matched
nature's outdoor performance over the Australia day long weekend
this view of the story bridge from the executive building shows the water's
occupation of entire city blocks the big country town inundated the same shot
today showing the transformation into a modern city now the city's south bank is
a playground but it wasn't always that way before Expo warehouses lined the
river all inundated when it burst its banks
millions of liters of water on the move underneath Victoria Bridge flowing
through South Brisbane where today the State Library and Museum stand no matter
which bank you viewed it from the Brisbane River was impressive and its
power also in Ipswich 41 homes were washed away the worst Sydney Street
razzle it started with one house washed off its stumps then the next and the
next we actually saw a whole house floating down on the current like a
cork and then when it made contact with these huge gum trees it just turned up
on its side and smashed into a million pieces it's absolutely amazing to see it
oh yeah I couldn't believe
a force that could pick up houses made short work of cars and caravans
you
at Gales 100 vans disappeared in the early hours of Australia Day smashed up
against bridges and trees
lives risked to retrieve them as parts of southeast Queensland were transformed
into a sea
there was a policeman in the boat with me and he said see out there and we just
saw out there was like looking across Morton Bay and he said your house is
over there somewhere under that
they'd been flooding before but never this bad 67 72 74 and that was the daddy
of the mall that really put the kibosh and everything
the official damage bill 840 million dollars but the real cost was beyond
counting many families lost everything well we had the washing machine law
mowers and things we took them all upstairs and we put them on tables on
top of wardrobe it was to no avail because it's kind of put off the ceiling
just asking a person where they lived was too much have you been back to see
your home since now I haven't been back where about is your home I'd buy two
and write roughly the flood destroyed lives there was depression suicide and
marriage breakdown biggest man we ever had was after the flood anyone we had
in our life well I had a nervous breakdown after it I would say that
did not and that's why we had to sell out because every time it rained my
nerves started going that was the end of it I guess anybody who lived in those
days and lived through those floods they would never forget it because they
suffered great loss and great danger and many heart-rending stories that we all
heard from people who more or less lost everything and would have to start all
over again and to top it all off there were looters cruel acts against people
who'd lost everything I mean there was nothing to gain because everything was
muddy and it stunk to high heaven but they were the exceptions the flood
brought out the best in people thousands of volunteers giving their time effort
and energy to help strangers clean up and rebuild it was the most remarkable
humanitarian effort I think Brisbane has ever turned off but it had to be that
way as everyone's world was turned upside down in January 1974 the bizarre
was commonplace stormwater drains sprouted water instead of draining it
away surfing came to the suburbs girls in bikinis carried umbrellas fish were
caught by hand in inner city streets traffic signs had nothing to control
but boats bridge height indicators became water depth markers parking meters were
the only reminders of a road below the boat in bottle department was born the
beer garden at the South Brisbane Hotel moved to the awning over the street and
the first floor window became the server in sporting venues were transformed
there was swimming at Lang Park boats moved freely in and out of Centre Court
at the Milton tennis complex a house completely intact became a hazard on the
fairway at Brisbane Golf Club strange sites strange times this was the year of
the rivers rage next the cyclone which dragged the monsoon to Southeast
Queensland
The motherland feels like seven, seven
The motherland feels like seven, seven
The motherland feels like seven, seven
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Happy New Holden, Deborah.
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January 1974.
The Sunshine State was already saturated
before the start of the Australia Day long weekend.
By late January, every Queensland River was in flood bar one,
and then the start of a bizarre weather sequence.
On Monday, January 21, a weak low formed off North Queensland.
It moved south and on Wednesday became Cyclone Wanda.
Its winds weren't strong, but it brought drenching rain
as it crossed the coast on Thursday night,
and it had an unusual effect,
dragging the tropical monsoon all the way to Brisbane.
The stage was set for Queensland's biggest natural disaster this century.
That rain was like standing under a tap.
It was just so strong you wouldn't believe it.
Dyes and dyes of rain with some very heavy periods of rainfall
over a short period.
The banks could not cope.
As commuters were fighting their way through Friday peak hour traffic,
the normally sedate waterways erupted.
Flash flooding along Enoggera Creek and Kedron Brook forced evacuations.
It happened again on Friday night around midnight.
Rising so quickly, 70-year-old Mrs Quinn Smith only had time to climb into her roof,
stuck there until rescued on Saturday morning.
What exactly did you have on the property here at the back?
We had a garage here, our four mini cars,
because we had the four minis in, I used to take PMG boys in as boarders, you know.
The creeks inundated the streets for the third time on Saturday night.
But even at this stage, it was still unthinkable that the Brisbane River could do the same.
But it had before, in 1893, a flood which filled the city.
And by Saturday night, Australia Day, it was threatening to do it again.
Water sweeping down the Brisbane River had reached the junction with the Bremer near Ipswich.
As the Brisbane swelled, it blocked off the Bremer and the creeks.
It was like one wall of water pushing back against another.
During the night of Australia Day, the Brisbane River finally broke its banks.
The timing caught everyone off guard.
The Australia Day weekend, people leave Brisbane in droves
and they go to the coast or the north coast or whatever.
So when the flooding really got going, there were a lot of people that couldn't return to their homes.
They were isolated either on the Gold Coast or the Sunshine Coast.
There were all sorts of complications.
People in various government departments that were needed during the weekend, probably were away.
There was some massive disruption in the whole weekend.
At police headquarters, the phones were running off the hook with pleas for help.
But the forces' two rescue boats had blown up on the eve of the disaster.
Not the ideal situation.
Very embarrassing at the time actually, it was for us. We were very frustrated.
And with their headquarters underneath the Story Bridge,
it wasn't long before they really were the water police.
Our water police station was flooded at the same stage and they decided,
I didn't know how high it was coming up, so they got one of our third input aluminium dinghies,
brought it inside the station and put all the files and records in the dinghy.
And at the same time, the sergeant ended up getting in the dinghy at one stage when the water got deeper
and he put the telephone in with him.
He was floating around the office coordinating other searches with him inside the police station.
So that was really a sight to see.
After 26 years on the river, Sergeant Dick Bartley is convinced the boaties of Brisbane
save the people of Brisbane.
Regular guys, Mr and Mrs Smith, with their boat, so I've got a ski boat here, can I help?
We'll launch it and away they go. They come up to houses, help people, remove people,
and everyone just helps.
The funny part about it, the whole of Brisbane turned out.
Everybody did their own.
Each area had its own coast guard, if you know what I mean,
because there's people turning up in all areas with boats saying, can I help?
And between the local police and there, that's how it all happened.
People were getting in and doing the job even without us going through us.
So it actually worked out, it was the greatest thing to see,
to have the boaties turn out and do their job.
I'd say everyone with a boat in Brisbane launched it and assisted.
The problem was people refused to believe they'd be flooded.
Residents stayed in their homes until it was too late.
They had to wade, swim, or be rescued.
When the water's too high
When the water's too high
I will carry you
I will carry you
I will carry you
I will carry you
When the water's too high
I will carry you
But the water did claim lives.
The first to die, a two-year-old boy, washed from his parents' arms
after their car was swept into a creek at Inala.
Two soldiers were electrocuted when their amphibious craft
struck a power line on Moggill Road.
Others died of heart attack from the shock.
Rescues were now taking place across the southeast.
On the Gold Coast, thousands were evacuated as expensive canal estates flooded,
a 12-kilometre inland sea stretching from Burleigh to Broadbeach.
It's widespread, we're doing what we can.
Yesterday we had to ship 600 people out of Normandy alone in one place.
They've had all their homes unindated with water and so on.
No one saw more of the disaster than Sir Jobe Occipeterson.
Everywhere we flew in Queensland, all you could see was water, water, water, more water.
It extended from hundreds of miles, as I said, right up to the Gulf of Carpentaria,
right up the peninsula.
Everywhere you went there was huge floods and houses under water, people isolated.
The river's rage was in full swing.
Next, disasters of Hollywood proportion threatening to overtake Brisbane.
She's got the weight of the world on her shoulders.
What am I going to do?
And she's blaming herself for everything.
He only left because I scared him off.
But this mum's about to discover her troubles are only just beginning.
Home It Away, Monday at 7.
Look, it's particularly difficult with cheese.
Cut down the salt and the fat and you're not left with a lot of taste.
But we really wanted that tick from the Heart Foundation.
Mmm.
Flavour's important.
But the customer has to be happy too.
Cheese matures at its own pace.
And we taste-tested three times.
All we could do was wait.
For months.
Gah, we had to do it again and again.
A lot of cheese got thrown out.
But we got there.
We got the tick and you get the taste.
Choosing healthy food only takes a tick.
It's big, it's huge and it's huge.
It's huge and it's on now.
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Hang on, I've just got to duck in here for a moment.
Hi, I need a perfume. It's her favourite one. I just can't think of the name.
Can you describe the scent?
It's more of a musky fragrance.
Fruity, tropical?
It's kind of like a bunch of flowers.
Beautiful?
Yeah, I like it.
No, beautiful from Estee Lauder.
That's it.
You smell nice.
Beautiful actually.
You say so.
The huge Lifeline Book Fest is on again at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre from the 23rd to the 26th of January.
With more than half a million quality books from just 20 cents, you can afford to sit back and enjoy any number of good books.
The flood just wouldn't go away.
Even after the rain stopped, water continued flowing into the suburbs and city.
Areas considered supremely safe were underwater.
Thou art the water of the world.
The water of the world.
The water of the world.
The water of the world.
Areas considered supremely safe were underwater.
Thousands were sheltering in halls and churches.
How they stayed here under the conditions they have with their bunks touching one another, foot and head, I'll never know.
But down river, disasters you only see in the movies were brewing.
The Robert Miller, the last great ship built in Brisbane had broken free.
A 62,000 tonne oil tanker loose in the Brisbane River.
The vessel was built in the Evans Deakin dry dock at Kangaroo Point.
Now, a quarter of a century later, the site has been transformed into the luxurious dockside apartments.
But back then, the tanker was awaiting final fit out when its moorings were ripped out of the bank by an incredible force.
It was a surge of water really that nobody expected, at least certainly nobody in our department expected.
After breaking away, the tanker swung across the river.
Residents in units on the opposite bank feared they'd be wiped out.
The stern of the ship was only about 10 metres away from the river bank.
And of course they're pretty close to the river bank and she was an enormous ship and she was up high, you know, right up there like that.
It would have given them a terrible fright to see this thing bearing down on them.
But there was an even more horrifying prospect.
The ship was long enough to dam the Brisbane River, creating a larger flood.
She would have grounded poor Anna after probably broken her back and no doubt caused more,
served as a sort of a dam and caused a bit more flooding in the local areas.
It would have been very serious.
A fleet of tugs and the ship's anchor halted its drift.
But then the Moreton Lighthouse tender ran into the Robert Millers anchor line, threatening to set it free again.
First mate Matthew Carroll risked his life on a rope ladder to untangle the chain.
He's been slipping through and through, running like a pendulum.
And at any stage, something nasty could happen.
There's no two ways about it. He's got more guts than it takes.
He succeeded. Unhooked, the Cape Moreton powered away.
That drama under control, attention turned upriver to the Centenary Bridge next to the heavily flooded suburb of Jindalee.
The koala, an out of control gravel barge, had wedged underneath the bridge.
Other barges were ordered to bolster the bridge against the force.
The koala had already smashed part of the bridge and was lifting the road.
He was wedged underneath and if the water had risen much more, of course it would have buckled the bridge altogether.
So the only thing to do, of course, was to sink it, which they did.
But that was no easy task. Four times divers had to fit explosives to the hull.
Eventually she was sunk. The damaged bridge saved.
By this time, pictures of the Queensland disaster were being shown around Australia and the world.
But in 1974, all television footage was black and white.
Here at Kedron Park is the same sad, familiar scene of devastation.
Many of the people here are retired pensioners who have spent all their life savings on improving their lives generally and providing for the future.
Koala Television was still a year away. A Milton Film Production Company did shoot in Koala,
but the most revealing pictures have been hidden for a quarter of a century.
Nobody, nobody's seen these films yet.
You are, will be the first one who has seen it.
Eric Gaila was a Channel 7 cameraman, but he also worked for CineSound Movie Tone newsreels.
Eric filmed the floods, but CineSound Movie Tone ceased production soon after and never bought the film.
And I've been looking everywhere. And you think I could find it? It was gone.
Twenty years later, a parcel arrived from Germany.
Eric had left the film in a German cellar while trying to sell the shots to a foreign filmmaker.
These films, see, they have never been opened.
Never been opened since the last 25 years.
All rusty cans deteriorated almost. But we have a look how the film is looking.
Oh boy.
Oh what? It's perfect.
Ha ha. Ha ha ha. It's perfect.
It's perfect. Ha ha. Ha ha ha. It's perfect.
A technician at Cutting Edge breathed life into the 25 year old film.
The film's generally in good condition. It's apparent that it's been kept in possibly damp conditions.
On one of the rolls there was a bit of fungs, a bit of mould growing.
But you can see from the colour here it's starting to fade a touch.
But overall it's in really good condition. Fantastic.
It holds up very well indeed. I'm able to grade it pretty much like any film that would have been exposed in the last week or two.
I don't believe it.
After 25 years. I don't believe it. I never thought I might see this stuff.
I never thought it. Ha ha ha.
While other cameramen shot from the comfort of a boat, Eric was chest deep in water.
The water was about here I would say if I remember.
And I had the tripod sitting in that water there, which the camera was sitting on top.
And the battery pack which was usually hanging on the tripod.
I had to strap it around myself you see that I had power for the camera to run.
I could not believe that a disaster like this can happen here in a million town of people of Brisbane.
It was so sad that it is indescribable in words.
Instead Eric's pictures forever capture the city's battle with its river.
Next, what people faced when the water finally went down.
It's a captivating new series adored by millions of Britons.
Dedicated to helping those in need, their doctors passionate about their job.
I want you with me. Kate don't do this please.
Peak practice Thursday 8.30 on 7.
My last cigarette was yesterday evening. I put my first Nicobait patch on this morning.
Don't know how I feel yet. I'm still not smoking. Seven days.
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What I'm doing now wouldn't be a good idea in a Commodore with independent rear suspension
because it isn't rated to cope with 2300 kilogram loads.
The double wishbone IRS on this new Falcon however is a full generation ahead
and it shows.
Coupled with the Falcon's heavy duty tow pack it's making light work of things.
Considering that you could have this whole package for less than a Commodore with an inferior IRS
I know where I'd put my money.
Trim makes it easy to be a little bit good
because you're bound to be a little bit bad.
I'd suggest a Colourstay lip colour rather than a gloss.
It'll last longer and it won't kiss off.
Have a great day.
Thank you.
At Terry White Chemists you'll find beauty advice for every occasion.
Sunday, an emergency at Harry's practice.
An animal choking for its breath.
Can Harry save Bandit the Rat or will the young girl lose a friend she loves?
He needs to keep breathing.
Harry's practice Sunday 6.30 on 7.
Eventually the water did go down.
Residents returned home expecting the worst.
The worst was far more devastating.
I did expect it to look tragic but not this tragic when we got here.
We're on a cruise on the Himalayan.
We got word through the wireless on the Himalayan.
And then we come back to this.
Our home, our car and everything.
Something that's just beyond me.
I am thankful that the base of the house hasn't shifted because at my age of 75
I wouldn't attempt to build another new house, you know.
I'm thinking in line to try and salvage this house if I could get it brought back
onto new footings, I don't know if it's possible.
Streets of ruin and metres of mud.
I believe all the walls are going to be knocked out of the house, all the walls
and the ceilings and that's about $3,000 there.
Do you think you'll ever be able to get all the mud out?
Oh, if you could see where the mud went and where it was.
No, look, I think I've even got mud in me.
That's just how I feel.
25 years on, the mud is the most enduring memory.
When you get a lot of rain you can still smell the mugginess of the mud.
Although you know it's not there, it still must be in the timbers
because you do definitely still smell it.
It stunk. Everything it touched, it smelled.
There really was a bad smell.
For ages the house had the bad smell.
Brian Cowell's house backed onto Oxley Creek.
Everything he owned was ruined.
It took a while seriously to correlate the fact that we were in a home
that we had designed and had built and yet we were in a strange place.
It was like an underground cave because it was filth.
Mud had been right up to the ceiling.
We had two choices.
We could either have a nervous breakdown or pick up a shovel.
I couldn't afford a psychiatrist but the house just destroyed
so we picked up a shovel and cleaned it.
There was no way the residents could do it themselves.
An army was needed so the call went out.
Colourful 4IP Greater Brisbane.
If you want to help the flood victims of Yeronga
please come to the 4IP operation clean up centre
opposite the Princess Alexandra Hospital on Ipswich Road.
We repeat, do not take your car to Yeronga
because there's so many fools around sightseeing and hampering the operation
that it's unlikely you'll get through the traffic.
Back to the studio.
That appeal led to the next great flood of 74, the volunteers,
armed with eagerness, elbow grease and open hearts.
That was from everywhere.
Outside Brisbane they came from everywhere and took our clothes and washed them
and brought them back, ironed and everything.
People turned up I've never seen since.
I wouldn't know if I'd walked past them in the road.
They turned up and said, here I am, I've got a hammer, I've got a saw,
I've got a paintbrush, I've got this, let's do some work.
I didn't know, people just turned up at your house.
For days people lived in shelters or camped on neighbours' floors.
We're cooking on a portable gas barbecue, you know,
which we're sharing with the neighbours.
We cook at first and they cook second kind of thing.
And the food centres here are keeping enough food up to us
and we don't have excessive food, we've got enough
and so the kids think it's a picnic, as a matter of fact.
But as the tips filled and mud cleared, many victims realised insurance was useless.
Well I've been told by the insurance company I can't expect any compensation at all from them.
Is this for the house only or for furnishings?
For house and furnishings both.
So you're completely back to stop one?
Yes, on everything that's lost.
What are you planning to do now? It's all over.
Well all we can do is to wash it out and start again.
Do you plan to remain in this particular area? Yes.
There were grants, but not for everyone.
We're knocked back because we earned $9 too much than what it should be.
Business also needed help.
The Pall's milk factory at South Brisbane was a mess.
The mail centre was afloat.
Inside Toonville shopping centre everything was wet.
Hundreds of small businesses were also ruined.
And before trading could resume, the river's legacy had to be shoveled out.
And that meant food shortages.
Broccoli markets opened a temporary area on high ground to resume trading in fresh fruit.
The Air Force carried basic supplies.
Tetanus was a concern.
Doctors were giving up to 200 injections each day.
Council had to fight mosquito and disease outbreaks.
The cost to road repairs ran into the millions around the state.
But easing the personal burden, millions generously donated by Australians.
And of course, what disaster would be complete without a fundraising song to lift spirits.
It had rained for days on end.
It never seemed to stop.
A cyclone wonder hit the land.
It gave us all our lots.
The banks of all the rivers gradually did go.
Even places looking safe were swept up in the flow.
Looking safe were swept up in the flow.
Those heavy clouds hanging overhead, they looked up all black.
If we really must go down, let's go down fighting back.
Next on the River's Rage, how the disaster changed Queensland.
On Today Tonight, forced to have triplets.
I then would have said no.
A Queensland IVF mum slams the procedure that gave her these kids.
They came at a very high price.
Her six years of hell. Plus, who's got our money?
There are people who'd say, well, this is a gift from God.
Queensland's last wallet honesty test.
They did the right thing.
I saw the name there and just thought I'd ring that number.
We've watched and waited. Now the results.
And the Cellulite pill, new shipments and the biggest success story.
We lost 34 killers.
Today Tonight.
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So if you're going to build or renovate, visit the home and building display centre,
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Hey. Hi Jo. Come in.
Considering you're so different, I mean, really different, I'm amazed you two get along this clappening.
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Happy New Year, Brockie.
Happy New Holden, Deborah.
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The Park Royal Hotel was isolated during the 74 flood.
Today, like in many buildings, the high water mark confronts visitors who ask,
could the flood really have been that high?
Across the road, the city botanic gardens were closed for nine weeks,
staff hosing plants to remove chemically charged mud.
But the flood actually enlarged the gardens.
Today, the mangrove boardwalk sits on sediment deposited by the floodwaters.
But the flood left more than just sand behind.
Many residents still have lingering fears.
You worry sometimes when you get a cyclone warning somewhere,
and you think, oh, I wonder if we're right.
Yes, well then if it's continual rain, we usually go over and have a look to see at the creek,
to see how far it's rising.
Residents who lost everything have rebuilt, rebored and even repaired.
But it came right up there, broke my teeth head.
That's the one that it smashed.
As you can see, it's patched.
But it's family treasures people still miss.
Now these are the only two photos of two of the children I have left.
I haven't any of my daughter.
It would have taken only a minute to save them, but there were no clear warnings.
There were a whole range of factors.
One was that the people didn't expect to be flooded,
and therefore they didn't believe the warnings referred to them.
The Bureau predicted the flood peak 30 hours in advance.
The warnings referred to the forecast height of the Brisbane Port Office,
but they meant nothing to the people in the suburbs.
The real problem was that the warnings were not conveyed to the people
in a form that they could understand.
Well, there were limited numbers of maps available before the flood in government authorities only.
They were not readily available to the public.
They should have been used to provide information to the public as to which suburbs were going to be flooded
and which streets and so on were going to be inundated.
That didn't happen.
The other people in the warning system included the Brisbane City Council,
the police and the civil defence organisation as it was then.
Why didn't they issue specific warnings?
That's a good question. That's a very good question.
Were suburbs warned? I don't even know that suburbs were warned.
It was fairly obvious that some suburbs were going to go under water.
The warnings would not have stopped the water, but people would have saved what mattered.
It certainly would have helped people to put their irreplaceable possessions into a motor car and leave.
The old port office marker is gone, but you can still see a modern version at the Heritage Hotel.
The recorders that were here at the time were down along the water's edge,
and as a result, as the flood rose, they went under water.
The final recordings for the flood were taken off boards which were attached to the port office hotel here
and were done by hand by the marine officers from the top balcony, in fact.
Amazingly, after a quarter of a century, debris gathered by the river and dumped in strange places can still be found.
This was somebody's clothesline that was come down in the flood, wrapped around the tree.
That's been there for 25 years almost now, a quarter of a century,
and it's started to get embedded and growing into the tree now.
In much the same way, the event is embedded in our history.
Oh, it's significant, isn't it, in the history of a nation.
The tragic things always stand out, the wonderful successes always stand out.
They're there. This was a tragedy in Brisbane, and we've had some wonderful things happen, and we have to remember both of them.
I think it'll go down as one of the defining moments in the history of Brisbane.
It's a time when the big country town, as it was then, really found itself faced with a major disaster,
and the way the people responded to that was absolutely magnificent.
I mean, old rivalries were forgotten, commercial interests were forgotten.
People understood that this was, in many cases, a life and death situation,
and people were seeing their entire lives float away down the river.
It was, yes, I said, a defining moment, not only for the city, but for the spirit of the city.
Next, today tonight's Michelle Rican finds out why experts say the big flood will happen again.
A driver takes a shortcut home.
Freeway fires that threaten lives, and the car thief who tries to outrun the law.
Police camera action next.
Happy New Year, Brockie. Happy New Holden, Deborah.
Commodore has finished 98 as Australia's best-selling car.
So Holden dealers are celebrating with great deals on 98 model Commodores.
At your number one Holden dealer now.
Please, please, no more please.
We rock with advantage, please. I've gone. Killed them on contact all month long.
Every dog and cat knows it's the one. The chance we can use it even when we're young.
Use advantage. Please, kill them please. Use advantage. Please, kill them please.
A few drops on the neck is all you ever need. It's fast.
Advantage, kill them please. Advantage, join in me. Get, get from your net.
It's not mine, actually. It's a girlfriend who lives across the road.
She bought a scratchie for her brother-in-law and she sent the birthday card to him.
She forgot to put the scratchie in the envelope. So she scratched herself and she won $25,000.
She bought her grandmother an oven and she shouted,
her sister a thousand dollars wear the clothes and her other sister a thousand dollars wear the clothes.
And the brother-in-law didn't get anything.
A pet world can harbor a number of unwanted pests, fleas and ticks.
Just waiting to make a moving feast out of your pets and share your home.
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Only Frontline kills fleas and ticks even if your pets get wet.
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Fresh off the boats, large, juicy West Australian rock lobsters for half price.
At one of Queensland's best restaurants, Baguette at the top end of Racecourse Road in Ascot.
But only until the end of February.
Prepare for an upset. Martin's running hot. The quarter won't go down without a fight.
Who will go on? Plus, Kraft versus Fernandez.
Can Steffi continue her winning streak? The Australian Open tonight on Channel 7.
Those who experienced the 1974 flood say it was the worst in living memory.
And if you ask people who live in South East Queensland whether they think it could ever happen again,
you'll find most of them shaking their heads and saying never.
But never say never.
Last century, two floods reached the same height as 1974.
And four others, two within two weeks of each other in 1893, were much worse.
In those days, many grand old houses and churches were built on hills well out of the reach of flood waters.
Divine inspiration or a genuine understanding of the Brisbane River system
and how Mother Nature could turn it upside down in hours.
Since 1974, the face of Brisbane has changed almost beyond recognition.
If it weren't for some of our better known landmarks, even the river itself would be hard to define.
Apartments with cafe bars, gymnasiums and that all-important River View replace wharves, warehouses and workers' cottages.
Throughout South East Queensland, loads of landfill and new estates camouflage floodplains.
Canal developments defy flood limits set by the State Government in the wake of 74.
And light industry with chemical storage, even essential services, risk being inundated.
It's as though the big one never happened or might never happen again.
And that, according to natural hazard experts, couldn't be further from the truth.
There's no question, it's not really a question of if, it's really a matter of when.
Dingle Smith has made a study of urban flooding in Queensland and found the Gold Coast to be the most flood-prone local government area in Australia.
There would be somewhere between 10 and 20,000 dwelling units, because some of them are flats,
that would be flooded with a recurrence of the 74 flood.
Now, the planning has now changed, so the position for the Gold Coast is miles worse than it was in 74.
Fellow geographer Ken Granger has also studied natural disasters in Australia and overseas.
His work for the Federal Government is dedicated to people protection, not if, but when the next big one hits.
In Brisbane, the impact on buildings, on industry, on infrastructure, on roads, the economy would be absolutely enormous.
We'd be talking of billions of dollars worth of loss.
Like 74, loss of life would follow if we failed to heed the warning.
Significant areas that are on high ground would be without power for extended periods of time.
The water supply would be affected, the sewage systems, bridges would be out, roads would be cut.
So essentially the life of Brisbane would grind to a halt.
It could happen any wet season.
When it does, Waiwanho Dam, built since the 1974 flood, may not prove to be the saviour politicians told us it would be.
Waiwanho Dam would take an enormous surge of water that would leave the city.
Unfortunately, the perception in Brisbane, of most of the community, is that, well, the dams will stop it flooding.
Well, that's just not right.
If Waiwanho is essentially full when the weather sequence commences, its capacity to retain a flood is virtually nil.
Waiwanho Dam can store enough water to fill Sydney Harbour three times.
It also has a flood storage compartment about the same size.
It sounds impressive, but even government officials have to admit Waiwanho Dam would not hold back a 74-style deluge.
The location of rainfall is the key.
Another 1893 flood would be devastating, and it could easily happen.
If, for example, rain fell with the same intensity south of Somerset and Waiwanho Dam, that is, in the lower Brisbane River catchment, many residents would be swimming in it.
We're really looking at a cyclonic depression that stalls in the Brisbane area for several days, and as it does that, then of course it's dumping copious rain,
and generally the rainfall is enhanced where the winds are running into the hills at the back of Brisbane.
A similar weather pattern hitting the ranges at the back of the Gold Coast is all it would take.
Westwood Vines had about 72 mil in about the last hour.
Mother Nature may be contrary, but technology is on to her.
Better technology means more accurate and more timely predictions.
A hundred and thirty automatic stations in the catchment area measure rainfall and river heights.
This information is compared with historical weather patterns on computer, so Bureau forecasters can make their predictions.
It's then up to the Brisbane City Council to tell residents how, when and hopefully precisely where they might be affected.
If we get the same rainfall, yes, we could have another flood.
However, what we do have managed to do is reduce the impact of that flooding on the city.
Brisbane City Council has poured millions of dollars into stormwater drains and flood mitigation.
Within hours, it can set up a flood emergency centre, and it's identified flood regulation lines along Brisbane Creeks,
which were the first to break their banks in the flood of 74.
In some cases, people do build below the flood regulation lines, and we warn them that they could be flooded if they do build below that line.
There will still be very big floods in the future.
It mightn't be in my lifetime, but it might be in yours.
In a moment on 7, police camera action followed by emergency triple zero.
And at 8.30 after the gold lotto draw, more of an outstanding season of tennis in the day six night session of the 1999 Australian Open from Melbourne.
This program proudly brought to you by Ford Dealers Official Factory Clearance.
This seven news update brought to you by Colonial, giving you fresh insurance investment and banking solutions.
Hello again. A Brisbane doctor and his two sons have been murdered in India.
Their car was firebombed. Graham Stewart Staines had been working with leprosy patients.
In Switzerland, delegates have arrived for an emergency meeting of the IOC.
Amid revelations, Sydney paid $50,000 in gifts to African delegates two days before winning the Games.
An AUS flag is expected to announce this, the most popular choice for a new AUS flag.
20,000 like the kangaroo design. It'll be unfurled on Australia Day. A mostly fine day tomorrow.
The place to be this Australia Day is on the Gold Coast.
Channel 7 personalities from the great South East, Wheel of Fortune, Brownies Coast Watch and Today Tonight.
A great day out for the entire family. Australia Day on the Gold Coast, proudly brought to you by Seven Nightly News.
There's a lady in our town at Teewanton and she went to work to see her husband and he told her to go away because he was bothering her.
She said OK. She went to the newsagents and bought a $10 scratchy and a magazine, came back scratched at $100,000 and paid off her home.
And she's a happy woman now.
This program is brought to you by Thick Soft Sorbent, the gentlest way to start the day.
Till one hundred and thirty second knots down the Indian statistics.
Accidents can happen anytime and you have to expect the unexpected.
We've all experienced traffic jams like this, but as the car population continues to grow,
we're increasingly likely to encounter the unexpected. To combat reckless driving,
the police are developing more and more sophisticated ways of recording bad driving.
This programme brings you more incidents captured on camera by Britain's police,
of some of the common and less common examples of thoughtless and careless driving and their consequences.
Spotted doing a U-turn on a busy motorway, the Metropolitan Police were more than a little
baffled as to what this white car was trying to achieve. As the driver emerged and headed
toward the cones, they wondered whether he might be from the government's Cone Hotline on an
unofficial check. His true intention, incredible as it might seem, soon became clearer and clearer,
as gradually a path through the cones, large enough for a car to pass, was cleared. Fed up
with the slow pace of traffic in the direction he was travelling, the driver chose to abandon
any notion of good sense and attempted to join the other carriageway. The fact that
the cones were there as a warning and a deterrent was simply ignored. Once through, the driver
has to negotiate a perilous re-entry into the traffic flow, made especially dangerous
because of course he has to join the fast moving traffic in the outside lane. When the
driver was later pulled over by police, he explained he had no idea that his manoeuvre
was illegal and hadn't realised what the cones indicated. But then it was his first trip
to Britain, from the Ukraine. Cones, road signs and markings are there for a purpose
and meant to be heeded, but this speeding motorist barely slows down as he approaches
a built up area and completely ignores that 40 mile an hour limit. He's totally unprepared
when a dog crosses the road in front of him. This impatient white escort disregards the
road markings just to save a few seconds, but lost far more time when he was stopped
by the police. But however frustrating being held up can be, the hard shoulder is not meant
for overtaking. Flouting the rules of the road like this can hamper rescue operations
for drivers who really need to use it. Fortunately no one was driving towards this convoy as
this driver ignores the double white lines on a blind bend. The results could have been
catastrophic. A car in flames is mercifully something you see more often in the movies
than in real life. Nevertheless our vehicles do contain large quantities of highly flammable
materials and whilst an exploding fuel tank may be rare, fires do happen and often for
the most mundane of reasons. A leaking fuel cap, an electrical fault or a cigarette not
extinguished properly can often lead to a highly dangerous situation. This camper van has just
caught fire. Its two occupants have managed to salvage a few bits from it, but all they
can do now is watch for lawnly from a distance until help arrives. If your car ever catches
fire when you're driving, the safest thing to do is stop, get out of the car as soon
as possible and call the fire brigade. Trying to deal with the situation yourself often
makes things worse. Opening the bonnet fans the flames as the fire will only get bigger
when it has access to more oxygen and most car sized fire extinguishers are sorely inadequate
for the job they're designed for, so don't bank on them. We'd also do well to follow
the example of these van owners who've taken the wise precaution of standing well away
from the blaze. The speed at which it spreads is quite astonishing. In the space of three
minutes this van has turned from a cloud of smoke into an inferno. Now watch what happens
as the white lorry drives past. An exploding petrol tank can easily throw dangerous metal
debris across the width of a motorway carriageway. In this particular case the fire brigade were
on the scene within 15 minutes but it was too late to save this van which is by now
completely gutted. But the danger is never passed until the fire is out and sometimes
even the professionals are taken by surprise. And it's not just the petrol tank that can
explode, watch the tyre on the front of the van. With clouds of smoke threatening the
safety of other drivers the police take the extra precaution of closing the three lanes
of the motorway until the danger is passed.