Disasters yield to 'Bon Bon'

BRISBANE -- The one-year anniversaries will begin in a few weeks as 4.5 million affected Australians mark a series of disasters that robbed more than 30 people of their lives.

The Queensland floods, which peaked in ferocity on Jan. 10, 2010, have left few visible signs of their presence, at least to the untutored eye.

The Queen herself recently sailed majestically up a Brisbane River which, just nine months earlier, was a roaring, chocolate-coloured torrent.

Giant pontoons were ripped from their moorings, household items littered the banks, even an entire riverside restaurant was gathered up and taken on a crazed voyage out to sea.

In suburbs surrounding Brisbane, the state capital, there are still streets where flood-ravaged houses remain uninhabited and ruined furniture litters the yards.

Thousands of residents across the state, from the central Queensland city of Rockhampton to Caboolture just north of Brisbane, still steer visitors to brown stains on kitchen walls to demonstrate how high the waters reached.

Many remain angry at a lack of prompt response by emergency service staff at the height of the crisis and others have hit out at planning laws allowing them to build homes on flood plains.

Anthony and Karen Leighton, who lived in suburban Brisbane, told a $15-million state government inquiry into the floods that their house quickly became an island in the Brisbane River when the heavy rains came.

"We all knew the 100 metres of water between us and our front street was 10 to 12 metres deep and that the raging river itself blocked our escape route on our other three sides,'' Anthony Leighton told the inquiry. "It was traumatic to say the least."

The psychological trauma in the aftermath of what is now known as "the summer of disaster'' has also been intense, though fears that the suicide rate would increase have been found to be largely groundless.

The almost biblical flood began hitting Queensland communities in early December and few escaped unscathed.

Then, just as the state waded its way out of the floods, the one-in-100-year Cyclone Yasi roared in on Feb. 3 and destroyed billions of dollars worth of property in far northern centres.

Evidence at the inquiry examining 22 flood-related deaths in southeast Queensland indicates, perhaps counterintuitively, that disasters may bond people together.

The inquest heard 13 people committed suicide in the flood-devastated city of Ipswich in the six months to June 30, compared with six in 2010 and seven in 2000.

But in other areas such as the inland city of Toowoomba, hit with a giant wall of water on Jan. 10, the suicide rate went down.

Diego De Leo, who heads up the Australian Institute of Suicide Research and Prevention at Brisbane's Griffith University, said international data show natural disasters could have a "pulling-together effect."

People distracted by a sense of shared loss and the need to work towards recovery could become less likely to engage in self harm, he said.

In a broader sense, it certainly appears the Sunshine State, as Queensland is known, has a renewed bounce in its step after months of cleaning up after one of its worst natural disasters since European settlement.

This week, in perhaps the most graphic sign of the state's renewed self confidence, a massive parcel of land in Brisbane's central business district filled with murky green water since last summer was named the site for the state's tallest building.

The 274-metre tower, already nicknamed "Bon Bon'' because of its shape, is set to be a symbol of the state's can-do attitude.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk says Queensland is looking to the future with confidence and the "Bob Bon'' is proof positive.

"With more and more projects like this one now getting underway, it sends a strong message to the rest of Australia, and indeed the world, that Brisbane is back in business,'' he said.

Michael Madigan is the Free Press correspondent in Australia. He writes mostly about politics for the Brisbane-based Courier Mail.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 14, 2011 A11