The Great Flood

Brisbane had experienced many floods before the one in 1974 however this one was my first.  After several weeks of higher than normal rainfall cyclone Wanda parked itself offshore and dragged the monsoonal trough line down to Brisbane.  We had 65 centimetres of rain in ten days which was too much for the normally sluggish and meandering Brisbane River to handle.  Fourteen people lost their lives and 200 million dollars of damage was caused.  One memory I have was my visit to see my friend Andrew.  He lived with his parents in Yeronga at least a kilometre from the river.  When I arrived I was appalled to see only the cornice of his 2-story house peeking out of the floodwaters.  My family luckily went unscathed as we had moved to the suburb of Sunnybank Hills far out of the reach of the floodwaters.  I did get several days off work though as the Brisbane downtown core was also flooded.

I managed to find this video on Youtube which shows the floodwaters in the city centre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWrd2U2tYAw