Posted by lessca | Posted in Cooloola Coast, Gympie | Posted on 27-06-2008
Being on the banks of the Mary River has its draw backs. When it rains, it really rains and the Mary River can only hold so much water. Being relatively flat to the west of the township, once the Mary River breaks its banks to whole area is inundated. Even the center of town suffers as can be seen by this photo.
This is the main street of Gympie, aptly named Mary Street. When the Mary River breaks its banks, Mary Street becomes part of the Mary River. These pictures where taken from the 1992 flood where flood waters peaked at over 20 metres.
Unfortunately these pictures are part of a ten year cycle. The current Queensland Government are using these floods as one of the excuses for creating a dam on the Mary River. Whilst the dam may prevent some of these floods, it will destroy thousands of acres of prime land and displace hundreds of families. The wildlife, well the consequences for them are unthinkable.
Floods are hard on businesses and local people, however most residents in the Gympie would much rather put up with the occasional flood than a dam.
The following photos are from the 1999 floods.
This next photo is from the bottom of my street – about 200 yards from where I live.
Where are almost due again – and its raining – bring it on!
When the Mary River floods, it replenishes the flood plains and the fresh water triggers esturine lifecycles of so many of our Great Sandy Straits species. The so called “flood mitigation” benefits of the proposed Traveston Crossing dam is slightly lower flooding (4m predicted in the 1999 flood) but no mention of the impact from the length of the flooding being doubled or the higher flooding that would occur upstream (including 3 towns of Imbil, Kandanga and Kenilworth) because the floodwaters would be trapped behind a wall. And what if the 70m wide spillway were to become blocked with logs and aquatic weeds such as hyacinth or salvinea? Or the flood gates were to loss power at a critical time when they needed to be opened? The overtopping of the partly earth embankment wall being proposed would be devastating to all communities downstream the risk of this occuring is very possible based on existing flooding over the last hundred years.
The forces of nature are definitely not to be reckoned with. Over here in Singapore, we are fortunate not to experience that. From the first two pictures, I can see the extend of the flooding and yet I have to agree with you that building the dam will destroy thousands of acres of prime land and displace hundreds of families. The last thing we would want to do is to create more damages to our planet or is it right for us to claim the ownership in the first place.
Gympie flood caused many probblems for alot of people
*At least 60 houses and 130 shops were under water
*The Peak of the Gympie flood was 21.95 metres.
*The main Mary Street mall was under several metres of water.
*Flooding caused The Bruce Highway north and south of Gympie to be closed in several places