Noah's Ark at Lockyer Valley

UQ Vet Hospital has done a sterling job of looking after strays after the terrible floods in the Lockyer Valley.

Read more here, be sure to click the links at the end of the UQ News article.

An adventure

What an adventure Mum and I have had today.

In to Riverlink, the rivers are all rising, flood warnings on them. We got there safely, but were blocked less than 15ks out from Ipswich and had to take to the highway. We hit the shops where there were some specials in some dresses I liked, but there weren't any in my size - which is really disappointing.
Mum was a bit crook with diverticulitis and no medication (once a year she gets it), so off to the Hospital in the next town (it's bigger than the one in my town and there's a better chance of seeing a doctor quickly), and we arrived there at about 2:30pm. No book to read, so I went home to pick up a book for her to read. Took me over an hour with the floods and going back to the main Highway.


1024 I took some photos of the flood water near the Warrego Highway on the way home from the hospital with Mum.

Checked out all the flooding, looked OK, but was told the local creek water would peak at about 8pm – thought we’d be safe and get across.... back to hospital to deliver the books. Mum was let out at about 5:40pm or so and we were stranded when we got to my local town, both the creek crossings were flooded and too dangerous for my little Corolla, so we watched the water at several places. Mum was still crook and sat in the car while I watched the flooding... it got boring to watch and Mum was hungry, and had to have food to take her drugs, so we went to the local restaurant where the chef made her some scrambled eggs, I had a small steak and we had a pot of tea. Yum! Cheap too.

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1030 – the bridge farthest from town which we could cross to get home was flooded. The creek had broken its banks there.1032
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1042 – the bridge closest to town which we had to cross to get home wasn't an option either!1043
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0019 – the lagoon which takes part of the local water (as opposed to the creek which brings the water from up the valley and as it happened, they had four inches in a storm today while we were faffing around at the shopping centre), was banked up, the bridge over the flood mitigation drain in town was going under at about 11pm. It takes about eight hours for the water to travel down from a point up at the top of the valley, this was taking a bit longer, and as the creek had broken its banks there was much more water heading toward town.0020
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Looked like we’d be stranded in town all night until I was chatting with a council bloke about where the water came from, where it went, etc. He told me his wife had a 4WD and they were going to cross the river to get home soon.

Then I saw that his wife had come to see him and she was the waitress in the restaurant. We got a lift home with them which they kindly offered as they live in the next street to mine.

Looked like the flood mitigation bridge in town would go under, probably at 11pm or midnight.

Mum and I are so pleased to be home! (Written at 9:51pm 27DEC10 - posted with pix much, much later!)

Gillard hospital visit farce

PM Gillard visited a hospital today for a photo-op prior to announcing funding for hospitals.

Unfortunately Canberra Hospital, the hospital Gillard visited, is not going to receive a cent from the new funding initiative.

Here's the pix.