Liz CA Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Extensive Flooding reported from Queensland with 8 people dead and 70 missing. Can't remember if we have any Australian friends from Queensland. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibbygirl Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 (edited) Rosie lives in Victoria. I'm not sure where Peela and Amber live though. I think Keptwoman is in Victoria also. I asked Rosie the other day about the flooding and she didn't even know about it. Edited January 11, 2011 by Ibbygirl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathleen in VA Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I'm pretty sure Amber is in Western Australia. Don't know about Peela. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz CA Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 I'm pretty sure Amber is in Western Australia. Don't know about Peela. Oh, good. Let's hope Peela is elsewhere too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 (edited) Peela and Amber are in Western Australia. Keptwoman, Rosie and I live in Victoria. the floods are terrible. But it is Queensland, they get them about every 20 years or so. Australia is like that, there are years and years of drought, and then we get heaps of floods that fill up all the dams and waterways, then the drought start again. Australia's wheat crops have been badly damaged this year, floods in Victoria a few months ago, drought in Western Australia, Locust plague in New South Whales, and now floods in Queensland. I have heard the world wide price of wheat is skyrocketing. there was a poor harvest in Canada and Russia and Australia's bumper corp was going to feed the world..... gone now.. Apparently the world sugar price is rising as well, all Australia's sugar is grown in Queensland. and I just found out yesterday that exactly half of the world's coking coal ( for smelting iron etc.) comes from Queensland. All their mines are flooded and it will be several months before they can be drained. Edited January 11, 2011 by melissaL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Yeah, I'm safe. Just jolly hot over here, and apparently a looming bushfire, but that's all normal for January. The floods in the east are the worst in decades but really, not so unusual in the bigger picture. It's just that the whole east coast has been in drought for a decade...so that ended with a big bang. But Australia is a country of extreme weather conditions (well, lots of heat, bushfires, sometimes floods- hardly ever any snow although they did get some a couple of months ago which was unusual)..I think the media might make a bigger deal of its significance nowadays with the whole planetary warming story. The QLD floods are now in northern NSW too. Difficult for the people whose homes are being flooded, or whose family members drowned in the flash flooding- there are dozens missing apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheryl Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 (edited) Yea, glad the Aussies are safe....been thinking about ya! Stop...shows I don't know what Aussies mean. Ha! I researched and found out they are dogs. NO, I don't think each of you is a dog. LOL! BTW, do the people go by a nickname? Glad y'all are OK! Edited January 11, 2011 by sheryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibbygirl Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Difficult for the people whose homes are being flooded, or whose family members drowned in the flash flooding- there are dozens missing apparently. I can only imagine. The images on the news remind me of Katrina. It's all so dreadful. I"m glad you all are safe. I pray for those in harm's way. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptwoman Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I've had the news on for the first time today, it really is just awful :( I'm going to stock up on flour and sugar (and capsicums, sigh) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 I'm going to stock up on flour and sugar (and capsicums, sigh) you had better stock up on broccoli, any type of Mellon, tomatoes, tropical fruit......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Whoa, I have just been checking out the flood videos and photos. Incredible. I dotn watch TV or get the newspapers so although I knew it was happening, I didnt have the visual impact. http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/01/11/3110493.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsabelC Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 If only we could move some of the water from eastern Australia to WA where the fires are :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptwoman Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 you had better stock up on broccoli, any type of Mellon, tomatoes, tropical fruit......... Ironically, this warm and wet weather is fabulous for the vege garden. Our melon plants are thriving. I'm about to make the garden much larger to cope with the shortage, and with the way stuff is growing it shouldnt take long for the new plants to be producing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy in Australia Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 If only we could move some of the water from eastern Australia to WA where the fires are Yes, and where the drought is. Ironically, the top of WA has been flooded out (there go my favourite Carnarvon bananas) while we're desperate for our dams to stay above 30% full. And without getting all political about it, if the greenies hadn't stopped Queensland from building more dams in past years, not only would some of the flood damage have been reduced, they would also have had more water to cope with the next drought that'll be coming.:banghead: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomOfOneFunOne Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 sheesh . . . I heard about the floods on bbc last night and came to search to see if it had already been spoken of. I'm so glad you guys are alright! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 (edited) We're on flood alert down here in Victoria for the next few days, I just read. Other than Gippsland, which I thought was odd. Usually they flood if anyone is going to. Dh said this morning that Tony Abbott (federal opposition leader) was talking about dams. I can't find the article though. Was he specifically talking about Queensland? Or does he think we should be popping dams in all over the place? Ah I found the article, but they didn't explicitly say where. Rosie Edited January 11, 2011 by Rosie_0801 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 We're on flood alert down here in Victoria for the next few days, I just read. Other than Gippsland, which I thought was odd. Usually they flood if anyone is going to. Dh said this morning that Tony Abbott (federal opposition leader) was talking about dams. I can't find the article though. Was he specifically talking about Queensland? Or does he think we should be popping dams in all over the place? Ah I found the article, but they didn't explicitly say where. Rosie The dams he was talking about were for QLD, to stop/ slow the chances of flash flooding. Apparently there are already some dams in QLD that were build just for this purpose after the 1974 floods. And yes, Gippsland has missed out on nearly all the rain for the last 12 months. Our veggie garden is suffering through lack of water. we don't have town water, and our dam is only 1/4 full. We are really hoping we will get an east coast low that will come down far enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GypsieFamily Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 (edited) Yes, we seem to have been following the bad weather this year. Got flooded out of the Alpine region in Victoria's floods. The positive was seeing Uluru with waterfalls cascading off it. We saw the Mallee sky go dark as night with the locusts going through. Had 120km/hr rip a corrugated fence apart next to the van while lightning was dancing all around us. Tomorrow we have to move on as SA is on flood alert and we are next to the Murray. It's just a year of wild weather, La Nina has definitely arrived. My heart goes out to those in qld. The family parked next to us today are from there. Eta I remember how expensive bananas were in 2007/08 after those storms. Not looking forward to most fruit,vegies and sugar going up by 30% Edited January 12, 2011 by GypsieFamily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 We saw the Mallee sky go dark as night with the locusts going through. I hope you got to experience rain in the Mallee. It's the only place I've been that can smell dusty while it's raining :) Travel safely! Rosie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amber in AUS Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Can't believe it! The Brisbane CBD is closed. We are safe here (WA), but hot ATM. Watching the cars being flung down the streets by the water is unreal. I just heard they are thinking about sinking a barge because they are worried it will become a lethal weapon overnight. A bridge is going to be dismantled too. The clean up bill is going to be huge! NRMA and RACQ have most of the insurance business there and will be flying in assessors from around Australia. I used to be one on emergency standby and did the Melbourne floods in 2004, glad i am out of that game now. My heart goes out to everyone involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nd293 Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Ironically, this warm and wet weather is fabulous for the vege garden. Conditions are pretty horrible for gardening in WA right now. I have a wicking bed, which seemed the best option for the drought, but only the chard/silverbeet have really coped with the heat. I hadn't thought about shortages, might have to try harder with the garden... We've been in Australia just short of two years, and this is the second major disaster (Black Saturday fires and now the Queensland floods). I'm wondering if this is some sort of trend relating to extreme weather / long term weather patterns or just a fluke. The footage showing the scale of the flooding has just been unbelievable. Nikki Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GypsieFamily Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 I hope you got to experience rain in the Mallee. It's the only place I've been that can smell dusty while it's raining :) Travel safely! Rosie Unfortunately it did rain while we were there. The locusts were incredible enough! Can't believe it! The Brisbane CBD is closed .... Watching the cars being flung down the streets by the water is unreal. I just heard they are thinking about sinking a barge because they are worried it will become a lethal weapon overnight. A bridge is going to be dismantled too. It's so hard to believe! The family camped on one side of us are from Queensland and keeping an eye on the floods, the family on the other side are from south of Perth and trying to find out how close the bushfire came to their property. It is all very sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 We've been in Australia just short of two years, and this is the second major disaster (Black Saturday fires and now the Queensland floods). I'm wondering if this is some sort of trend relating to extreme weather / long term weather patterns or just a fluke. The footage showing the scale of the flooding has just been unbelievable. Nikki I would say it is pretty typical of Australia and just part of the long term weather patterns. Really bad bushfires happen in Victoria (like black saturday ) every 30 years or so. Bad floods in Queensland happen every 30-40 years. I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror – The wide brown land for me! by Dorothea McKellar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 We've been in Australia just short of two years, and this is the second major disaster (Black Saturday fires and now the Queensland floods). I'm wondering if this is some sort of trend relating to extreme weather / long term weather patterns or just a fluke. Not a fluke. Flood, new growth, it dries out, it burns. That's the way this continent works. :iagree: with Melissa, and Miss Mackellar, ;) I'll tell you what's loving this horrible, humid weather. The couch grass in my veggie patch :glare: Rosie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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