Memories

Click on the title and you'll see what Colleges Crossing looked like in the early morning of the 5th June 2010.
Its in sharp contrast to what has happened to our park in the last couple of weeks.
It will take a massive effort on behalf of the Ipswich City Council to rebuild and replant the park to anything like it was.
The flood damage has levelled just about every tree and washed away the landscape and gardens.
The cafe was removed - as it was designed for - on the 10th January, just in time as the flood front made its way downstream.
This is the slot that the cafe rested in before and after:

The bridge at Colleges Crossing was a hive of activity today - as the clean up of the roads got underway. But, the river is still flowing over the bridge preventing engineers carrying out their inspections.

The road is not only a link to the Colleges Crossing Recreation Reserve, but is also an important connection for people accessing schools in the Ipswich area. With the weir bridge to be repaired - it will be the only link. Most of the school buses are on the Ipswich side of the river - and a round trip via the Centenary Motorway is 100 kilometres. School starts next week.

After taking a nostalgic look at the June pictures - it will be interesting to see how long it will take to repair and the park - and what it will look like. Fingers crossed.

We'll be back!

Channel 9 News finally gave us all a close up look at the destruction of our beautiful park - and, for those who have spent any time at Colleges Crossing - it was gut wrenching.
The park has been a magnet for people of the south-east for a century. Now its a pile of rubble.
But, the council has pledged to rebuild - and the job is enormous. Have a look at the Nine news story by Darren Curtis: http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/colleges-crossing-a-disaster-zone/xr3nld5
or click on the headline.
Its hard to picture what it will look like after the bulldozers start the reshaping of the park.
Getting there is also going to be a challenge - I checked out the alternate route over the Mt Crosby weir road - and its already a construction zone.

The Mt Crosby Road bridge over Colleges Crossing has been submerged since the 8th Jan and punished by the raging Brisbane River flood. Look what that water did to the park - what has it done to the structural integrity of the bridge.
When can we start selling coffee? I think its going to be some time before we can realistically consider it.
But this area is resilient - and changed a bit over the years - here's a picture taken in 1915.

As the promised reconstruction gets underway its doubtful that it will look exactly like it used to - here's some memories:

Whatever happens - it will still be Colleges
- a unique riverside park. And, we'll be there at its rebirth.

River Rising - Road Closed

Seqwater has started releasing more water from Wivenhoe dam this afternoon. This is on top of another bridge-closing high today. The barricades are back on Mt Crosby Road, and the Colleges Crossing bridge is again underwater. Its a rare bridge - more underwater than above it.
The dam release will hit a flooding 100,000 megalitres by tomorrow, that's not much below the level reached in late December. It will mean that the Colleges Crossing park will again be inundated.
The clean-up of the park from the previous event is said to be costing the Ipswich City Council $45k.
Again the Moggill ferry is shut-down.
A bit of feedback in the Queensland Times newspaper over the statement by local Labor MP Mr Wendt that we don't need a new bridge over the crossing.
We will check the weather and the park tomorrow morning to check whether the cafe will be open.