Re, "I am wondering why the Birdman (prolific reporter of extreme weather events overseas) has had nothing to say about the current weather event effecting the east coast of Australia."
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My Wife comes from Gympie QLD. I went to Gympie the 1st time in November 1971... When I was there we went for a walk down to Mary Street, where I was shown the marks left by floods over many years...Most were over 60 feet above the 'normal' River level. So what we see now is nothing new!!
*** Throughout the Gympie district, floodwaters have risen and fallen like a yo-yo for over 130 years of recorded history. With the flood of February 1999 peaking at a whopping 21.95 metres, the residents of Gympie now celebrate over a century of flood evasion.
Gympie’s survival against such tumultuous floodwaters is solely due to the strength and tenacity of its people, who have continually come together to pick up the pieces in the wake of the ever rising flood heights.
Three years following the discovery of gold and thus the establishment of the colony in 1867, Gympie was to experience its first inundation. The flood waters of 1870 reached heights of 21.61 metres leaving debris strewn from opposite ends of the settlement. The early pioneers of Gympie simply dried themselves off, and continued with their lives. Yet, if the residents of Gympie may had learnt from this experience, Gympie’s main street, Mary St., and its Central Business District may have been resituated, rather than have remained to this day in the heart of a sloping valley which is plagued by regular inundations.
However, Gympie credits its largest flood to the unsurpassed devastation of the flood of 1893, in which vast amounts of water poured into Gympie, (See AURIFEROUS GYMPIE) before reaching a peak height of 25.45 metres, (83 feet, 6 inches). In swift succession, in early 1898, Gympie was attacked once more by two floods both exceeding 20 metres in height. This was to test the very strength of Gympie’s tenacious pioneers, for as each of the floodwaters receded, the massive cleanup programs began to recover Gympie’s gold mining prowess.
Gympie pays tribute to the pioneering spirits of its past as their courage to continue in the face of such adversity, resulted in the survival of a growing community which isn’t afraid of getting wet.
http://sovereign.iwarp.com/flood.htm
And
Businesses going under in Gympie
January 10, 2011
He said the last major flood in Gympie was in 1999, when the Mary River peaked at 21.9 metres.
"... this region is really quite well prepared. We've had a history of flooding over the last 150 years," he said.
