We are Queenslanders

I guess most of you would have seen or read about the disastrous floods affecting most of Queensland. Some may be living through it themselves. Although I no longer live there, I'm from there and many of the places are close to my heart. I was born in the Garden City that had so much rain one Monday afternoon a little over a week ago. I've seen it rain and flood before, but this was on a scale never seen in written history. The little towns at the foot of the range that were swept away I drove through so often and visited the schools there as part of a job I had some 20 years ago.

Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Maryborough, and places in between, little places never mentioned yet I know their creeks were running over, roads I've travelled so often, friends in these places. Towns like Chinchilla, Dalby, Miles, Surat, Condamine, St George. I've either lived there or been there and know them well. Ipswich where my father's family originated, Brisbane going under, Wivenhoe Dam holding back so much water while the Bremer River carried the Toowoomba water east to join the Brisbane River.
Friends scattered all through these areas, family too. Fortunately all safe. 1974deja vu.

Now comes the hard part. The mud. The stench of rotting vegetation in the summer heat. Mosquitoes, midges and sandflies breeding in the stagnant pools still not dried out. The loss of life. The funerals. The loss of possessions. The danger of disease and infections. The conflict with the desire to rebuild and the desire to run away. Cleaning. Restoration. Rebuilding infrastructure.

An area of land that you could fit Great Britain or the state of Victoria into at least four and a half times. All of New South Wales plus a third again. Yes, it's a big place, and this is where I come from.


Yes Anna Bligh, Premier of Queensland, you said it best.
"As we weep for what we have lost, and as we grieve for family and friends and we confront the challenge that is before us, I want us to remember who we are.
"We are Queenslanders. We are the people they breed tough north of the border. We're the ones that they knock down, and we get up again.
"Together we can pull through this, and with your help, we can achieve it."

Yes Anna, those of us from north of the border are tough, We will still cry, mourn, weep and despair. Yet amongst all that, we turned out in our thousands to help others. We will turn it to good.

For years we told the rest of the world that Queensland was beautiful one day, perfect the next. Each one who gave their time, the police, the firies, the ambos, the SES, the Army, the Air Force, the team at EMQ, the ones who made the cups of tea in the evacuation centres, people who found clothes to donate, neighbours who came and checked on my elderly parents, all the unreported acts of kindness, bravery and compassion.

Yes Queensland, that makes you still beautiful, and come the tomorrows yet to be, you will rebuild back to perfection.