Letter from Rocky

[Maureen K Clifford]

Just sparked by Kyms comment about her horses and a few news clips I have seen including the ABC footage of a couple of my sons investment homes that are going under up there. Do so hope that all of our members are safe.

Thankfully he doesn't live there - thankfully I don't live there as he wanted me to move into one of the riverfront ones when I moved here to Ipswich.

But perhaps if he was there this would be the email he would send.


Hi Mum


New Years Eve came and went, taking hopes and dreams with it but without the usual celebrations of night fire, fireworks and sparklers. Too bloody wet up here at the moment.

Sydney put on a good show though – saw that on the telly before the power went off. We’ll be right, the generator is keeping the fridges going and we’re not out of beer – yet.

The corner shop has run out of everything and the water is up over the counter and till now anyway. We tie the tinny up to the verandah post and then wade inside to salvage what little is left. The river hasn’t peaked yet, and she is still rising and they expect her to go over the 9.4 metre mark.
Everything now is starting to stink – the sewage plant has been inundated. The mossies are out for blood, and here we are wading in waters where no doubt crocs are on the move. They could pop up anywhere now, no longer restricted to the river and river banks – their playground has expanded by thousand of miles; and the snakes – you see them swimming through the muddy waters, clinging to fence posts, and no doubt when able getting into houses, onto veranda’s. Survival of the fittest here Mate. (Have to make a mental note – don’t go out on the verandah to check flood levels without first making sure first that crocs and snakes aren’t there.) So many extra perils to think of at the moment.

But spirits are still high. Bowed but not beaten. Everyone is pitching in and doing what they can. Good intentions all round. New friendships being forged through adversity. The ANZAC spirit coming out. Mind you there are always the low life’s. We have got looters – can you imagine? And bloody tourists roaring through in their tinnies - rubbernecking. Pushing up a bow wave that surges and slaps the water into the houses – as if we haven’t got enough problems. Police are putting a stop to that though. God those blokes and girls have been wonderful – real morale boosters they are and the SES brigade, and the Salvo’s all trying to do something to help, and they are just as wet as the rest of us.

The local showground looks like Noahs Ark. Full of horses and cattle and goats and dogs – those that could be saved. They put them on the racecourse at first but then it went under, so now the showground is packed – but they are desperate now for stock feed. It will have to be trucked in from interstate and then airdropped.

Stock losses on properties will be huge, farmers were cutting fences and opening gates to give them the best chance of survival but doubt many would have made it. With no high ground even the strongest of horses and cattle can’t swim indefinitely, and standing neck high in water for days on end with no tucker isn’t the greatest deal either. The little calves and foals would stand no chance.

It seems silly with so much water around us but the first thing I am going to do when this starts to ease is have a shower in clean water. The newest fashion shade up here at the moment is ‘River Brown’ – described as a sepia shade of soft sludge silt – I think the whole countryside around here has gone for it in a big way. Even the residents seem to have embraced it wholeheartedly.

Anyway Mum – gotta go – they are filling sandbags at the showground so we are going to give a hand there. Don’t worry we’ll be right. When we are alone I will show you the piccys we took. You will be amazed – god knows we are amazed. Never thought I would be able to afford a property
with such extensive water views. Do you reckon the value will have increased much?

Love from your slightly soggy and almost submerged son

http://www.news.com.au/pictures/gallery ... 997?page=1

Cheers

Maureen