Floods in Australia

You are here: > Australia > Floods

Read more about Floods in 2012 on an extra page

Flooding is in some parts of Australia quite common. Particularly the tropical north is effected during the wet season from December until March. Many roads and areas are impassable during that time. That happens mostly every year and is not unusual. Some flooding doesn’t even get much attention in the news, particularly when it happens in low populated areas.

Anyway, even without the threat of cyclone’s Australia had to cope with severe flooding for decades. Small dry creeks become rivers with strong currents. Flash flooding occurred in places which is most dangerous for everyone’s lives. One of the most dramatic flash flooding happened in the Queensland city of Toowoomba on January 10th 2011. It received probably a high worldwide recognition because a dramatic part was filmed by amateurs and uploaded on You Tube. In the first year the video attracted over 7.5 million viewers. After the flash flooding, the region including Brisbane experienced one of the worst floods. 35 people lost their lives. Watch the extraordinary video below of the flash flood in Toowoomba.

In general most people have common sense and do the right thing during a flood. But you have always some know-alls who behave stupid. You have people who drive with their cars in flood water and get stuck. Others have to go for a swim and need to be rescued. Authorities always urge people to stay away from flood waters. People put their own lives at risk and the lives of their rescuers. But some characters have an overestimation of one’s own capabilities, so we will see more footage about rescue operations on TV in the future.

I had my own flood experience in 1996 when I travelled the region around Grafton in Northern New South Wales. I stayed on a small farm as a bed and breakfast guest. The farm was located close to the Clarence River which flooded a wide area including Grafton. I was lucky, the farm area was on higher ground and not affected. But there was no way to get out of the region. Around 200 roads were closed in the area. I could not travel for five days and had a great time on the farm. My way to Brisbane took me on a detour of around 200 kilometres to avoid the badly affected roads and areas.

January / February 2011: Victoria
Large parts of the central and northern districts were affected. More than 20% of Victoria was flooded. 2 people lost their lives. More than 50 towns and communities were affected. I like to mention a few amongst others: Carlton, Carisbrook, Echuca, Halls Gap, Horsham, Kerang, Rochester, Shepparton, Swan Hill as well as some suburbs of Melbourne and the Grampians National Park.

December 2010 / January 2011: Queensland
The floods covered large parts of Central and Southern Queensland. Brisbane was badly affected as well as other towns and communities like Bundaberg Condamine, Dalby, Emerald, Gladstone, Ipswich, Goondiwindi and Rockhampton. Toowoomba got hit by a devastating flash flood. Also the Lockyer Valley, were communities got virtually washed away. 35 people were confirmed dead as a result of the floods. I found a good comprehensive video report about the Queensland flood, provided by the Australian Channel Ten on You Tube. If you like - watch the video below…

December 2010: Western Australia
Affected was the area of the Gascoyne River catchment. The town of Carnarvon was badly hit. On the December the 17th 2010, Carnarvon Airport recorded 207 mm of rain in one day. Many people got rescued by a helicopter. The flood is considered to be the worst since 1960. The water caused also multi million dollar damage to pastoral properties around Carnarvon. There were no reports of fatalities.



September 2010: Victoria
The disaster started on the Friday the 2nd of September when heavy rain moved in from the west. It moved nearly all over Victoria to the eastern districts causing also chaos in the Victorian Alps. Among others, well known towns were affected like Ballarat, Bendigo, Horsham and Shepparton.



March 2010: Queensland
Heavy rain caused flooding in Central and south western Queensland. Most of the water came down between the 28th of February and the 3rd of March, in some places until the 6th of March. Noosa Heads received 182 mm of rain in one day (2nd of March), Bedourie 188 mm (1st of March) and even the desert community of Birdsville recorded 168 mm on the 28th of February.



February 2008: Queensland
This natural disaster hit an area between Townsville and Bundaberg on the central coast of Queensland. The main part of the rain came down between the 10th and the 18th of February 2008. Mackay recorded 610 mm of rain on the 15th of February, More than 2000 houses got flooded. Everything happened quickly; some residents had only little time to escape.

The Facebook and Twitter buttons above are just jpeg images with a simple link to Twitter.com and my Facebook fan page. The buttons are not “Plug ins” which affect our privacy. Read more about “Twitter and Facebook plug ins” and privacy protection on my disclaimer page. To get to my Twitter profile just type “ WalterAustralia ” in the search bar on top of the Twitter page after you signed in to your Twitter account.

© 2009 - 2012 Walter Leven