Ground Zero

Today was the first occasion since 10th January that I was able to walk through the park at Colleges Crossing.
The impact of the devastating flood is awe inspiring - the massive height of the river is evident on the hill overlooking the park and up the few trees that remain. Everything else has been smashed and levelled.

Stunned locals have flocked to the park since the Colleges Crossing bridge opened yesterday. A group from the army were also on hand today to survey the damage - as a Navy helicopter flew overhead. This is not a mop and bucket job - this is a clearance job worthy of our military.

The media were also on hand - from the press and tv - recording the devastation. Even when the cafe was taken to safety on the morning of the 10th - the river while rising through the park didn't seem to have much power behind it. What happened since then was that a relentless torrent of water has ripped and stripped the parkland. The height that the river reached is hard to imagine until you stand in the middle of the park and see metal wrapped around posts - posts bolted in concrete ripped out and twisted, wood and metal toilet blocks just washed away.

We've survived floods at the cafe - the latest 10m efforts in October and December, and after the water subsided - it was back to work, brewing the coffee.
This time, the cafe will be sitting on the side of the road on the top of the hill for sometime.
We've donated ice creams which were put into storage, to the Australia Day celebrations in Ipswich. We'll now have to wait for our own reopening celebrations - watch this space.

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.

High & Dry

The cafe and the two halves of the caretaker's residence are sitting on the hill overlooking the still flooded Colleges Crossing.
Click on the heading to have a look at the pic from nearmap.com will did a flyover during the Brisbane flood crisis.
The flood water is still surging through the park with the Brisbane River Mt Crosby hovering around 15.85m
From memory, I think around we should see the road across the weir appear around 11m. As we now enter the second week of the flood disaster in this area, it will take a few days before we can see what damage has been done.
About 10,000 cars a day use Mt Crosby Road over the Colleges Crossing bridge, so to have all road access to Ipswich cut is a major disruption to a lot of people.
People can't believe that while the river is so benign in Brisbane at the moment that we are still suffering from flood waters.

The river is wide

Checked out the river at Karana Downs where Mt Crosby Road winds over the bridge at Colleges Crossing. While the flood threat passed last week for most of Brisbane, here at Colleges Crossing it hasn't dropped much.
Wivenhoe dam is at 123% and dropping, discharging around 299,000 megalitres a day. The gates closing sequence is underway and at this stage the gates are expected to be closed by mid week.
The river is still hundreds of metres wide at the crossing, and we'll have to wait until the water subsides to get any idea how much devastation there is in the park.

The Mt Crosby weir is at 16.2m and rising at the moment, despite the gate shutdown sequence at the dam.
What can be seen from the opposite bank is the frame of the shade sails that were a feature of the cafe. From a distance it's hard to make out how our iconic tree survived. It seems like there's a huge pile of debris in the area.
What I think was the bird hide is just some sticks and very little else.

Some official estimates put the time frame of the water dropping enough to access the park as the middle of next week.
In the meantime, it just a waiting game.

When 100 percent is half-full

Many people, including me have struggled with the percentages used by authorities to explain the amount of water held by Wivenhoe dam.
For example, during the Brisbane flood event it was said that the dam was 186% full. Now there's a head-scratching number. How can a dam be more than 100% full?
It appears that the full capacity of the dam is 225% - with 100% referring to the storage of the region's drinking water and anything above that is for flood storage.
Still don't understand? Check out an article published yesterday by the Australian Geographic. Simply click on this article's headline.
One thing the article doesn't touch on is the legislation that requires seqwater to drain the floodwaters stored - 'within the required 7 days'.
Now what's that all about?
The economic cost of the Queensland floods is expected to be the highest in Australia's history. The federal government has already paid out $52m in immediate support to victims. The Premier's flood appeal has raised $85 million, and Ms Bligh has promised all the money will go directly to victims.
The river level at Colleges Crossing is still at catastrophic heights, and it should be remembered that the level at Mt Crosby at the peak of the flood was 26m. Colleges Crossing has been hit by a series of floods over the last couple of months as a result of those dam releases of stored floodwaters to comply with the 'required 7 days' in the legislation.
As everyone is aware the cafe at Colleges Crossing was removed last Monday as the flood levels got to critical levels.

Well since then I've be able to dig up a copy of the Local Bulletin news magazine from 1996 which featured the May floods of that year during which the cafe was also moved to the top of the hill overlooking the park.
The estimated cost for the repairs nearly 15 years ago was $150,000. The figure this year will leave that in the shade.

These latest releases from Wivenhoe dam are continuing around 300,000 megalitres a day, and Colleges Crossing is expected to remain inundated until the middle of next week.
It won't be a pretty sight when the water finally subsides.
It may been long time before the cafe reopens.

Survivor - Karana Downs

With power restored last night (8pm) - life returned to normal after a week in which we had been cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phone, no food, no petrol, and cars packed to the roof ready for evacuation. The Mt Crosby weir was drowned under 26 metres of flood waters - Colleges Crossing continued to the cut - and the only road east to Brisbane was also under water.
The authorities finally realised that there were people living in the exotic far-flung suburbs of Karana Downs, Mt Crosby and Bellbowrie, late Thursday afternoon - despite the fact that these areas were the first to be inundated by the huge flood. By the way - there's about 25,000 people living in this area. A lot to lose in disaster planning.

The Brisbane River level at Mt Crosby today is still running at near 17 metres.
The river at Colleges Crossing is still raging on a wide front. The Navy is running emergency boats across the water from Karana Downs to the Chuwar side.

The above picture is taken from the Karana Downs side of the road leading to the bridge across Colleges Crossing. Remember what it looked like - it has been underwater for the best part of three months.

The devastation of Colleges Crossing looks complete. There were reports that the iconic fig tree at the cafe had been uprooted. Observing the scene from the Karana Downs side yesterday there was nothing to see but a sea of water. What could be seen was the awnings that surrounded the cafe laying crumpled up against the road up the hill. The peak flood level reached halfway up the hill.
If the tree and awnings have been swept away, it is fair to assume that the entire deck that the cafe was on has been devastated.

The above photo is of what used to be the Colleges Crossing park.

Seqwater yesterday increased the releases from Wivenhoe dam to 301,000 megalitres - so the flooding through the area will continue for sometime. It will take a while the the waters to subside - so that the full extent of the damage to the park can be assessed.
But, it would be fair to say that the cafe will be closed for a long time.
Today, it starting raining, and the cycle starts over again - there are cyclones dawdling around off the coast.

Packed and Ready to Go

Called in by the local authorities and SES late last night to prepare the cafe for a new flood peak.
Word is that the flood waters from Lockyer Creeek - near Gatton will combine with increased releases from Wivenhoe dam - and hit around 13m at Colleges Crossing.
Water is not far from the cafe wall with the river level tonight at 10.21m.
The SES joined staff in packing and preparing the cafe for evacuation.

We were also advised that the only alternate route to the Colleges Crossing bridge - the Mt Crosby weir is closed. The river level at the weir is 12.69m.
That means for anyone living in this area - a 50km round trip.
Which local politician said recently that no money should be spent on Colleges Crossing? Good luck with your future career.
If the flood levels do reach the heights predicted - the cafe and the caretakers house will be shifted to higher ground.
It is one of the unique features of the Colleges by the River cafe that it was designed for just such an emergency.
Tomorrow (Monday) a decision will be made whether to shift the cafe to higher ground on the back of a flatbed truck.
But, preparing for that meant that staff and SES people worked until the early hours packing everything up.
The caretakers residence was also prepared for evacuation - it may also be transported out of the park.
Work teams will be back on site early in the morning to access the situation.
Thanks to everyone who helped with the work at the cafe throughout the night.

Closing Down

The flood level in the Brisbane River at Colleges Crossing is reaching record highs. For the first time in memory - the water level is threatening the emergency entrance to the park. The official river level has broken 9m - and high tide is due at 4pm.
Its a massive amount of water raging through the area, and locals will have to use the one-lane bridge over the weir at Mt Crosby for some time yet.
The rain has been relentless, and flooding in the catchment and streams can only add to the flood levels in the area.
The estimated damage bill to Colleges Crossing Recreation Reserve during the most recent flood was $45k.
Because of the threat of rising water and the possibility of the water rising higher we have reluctantly closed down the cafe's operations so that we can evacuate through the only exit left. We will access our situation again tomorrow morning.
We've living up to our slogan - There's no place like it, and, in Brisbane and Ipswich at the moment that's true.
We will post some photos this afternoon.

Flood at Colleges Crossing receding - for now

Wivenhoe dam has reduced its discharge of water through one gate, which is expected to remain open until at least this afternoon. The road closures are expected to continue until tomorrow.
The weather today suggests that we can expect a few showers increasing to rain tonight.
Low tide will be at 9am - high at 3.22pm
Tides are expected to exceed the high water mark over the next couple of days.
The bridge at Colleges Crossing is still underwater - and Mt Crosby Road is showing signs of wear.
There's plenty of debris in the park and will take some time to clean it up.
The cafe - Colleges by the River - is still closed.

River levels on rise

The flood peak from the Wivenhoe dam release is expected to hit Colleges Crossing sometime today. It won't be of the magnitude of the October flooding through the park - but, not far behind those levels.
The big question is - how long will the flooding continue for? Will the river height be back to normal over Christmas? There's are the unknowns at this stage.
Nevertheless - the cafe will be open today as normal. And, we can keep you posted on the river levels.
The bridge at Colleges Crossing is under - and that won't be changing for the foreseeable future. So for a lot of the people in our area - travel will be via the detour over the Mt Crosby weir.
The road barricades are likely to be shifted to the top of the hill beside the park - to Allawah Road. But access to the park at the moment is open.
The flooding could affect the opening hours over the next week - but we will keep you posted.

Storm season

Yesterday's wild storm and hail just 'kissed' our part of the river yesterday.  Just a heavy downpour with a tinkle of hail.  Another storm is brewing in the southwest and is on track to hit Briz suburbs this afternoon.  We are open - so far its a perfect summer day.  The Wivenhoe dam release is still swamping the Colleges Crossing bridge - making life extremely difficult for those who rely on Mt Crosby Road.  High tide was 9.30am this morning - low tide will be a 3.30pm.  While there is a detour around the Colleges Crossing Recreation Reserve - the barricades have been shifted to allow access to the park and the cafe.  Not that many people are taking the drive down the hill.  There's always a price to pay for being in paradise.  The forecast is for showers and storms until Sunday - with rain clearing on Monday.  It would be nice to talk about something else besides the weather, and flooding.