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Amanda Gearing is a Walkley Award-winning
investigative journalist. She worked for The
Courier-Mail from 1997–2007, based in
Toowoomba, before becoming a freelance
print and radio journalist for media outlets
including The Australian and ABC Radio
National. Amanda completed a Master of
Arts (Research) in 2012 and a PhD in global
investigative journalism in 2016.
First published 2012 by University of Queensland Press
PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia
Updated edition 2017

www.uqp.com.au
[email protected]

© Amanda Gearing 2012, 2017

This book is copyright. Except for private study, research, criticism or reviews,
as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without
prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

Cover design by Luke Causby/Blue Cork

Cover photograph © Ann-Marie Ryan/Reuters/Picture Media
Author photograph by Jack Lynch MBE
Maps by Gillian Scott
Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro 11.5/15.5pt by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

is available from http://catlogue.nla.gov.au

ISBN
978 0 7022 5952 4 (pbk)
978 0 7022 5871 8 (epdf )
978 0 7022 5872 5 (epub)
978 0 7022 5873 2 (kindle)

University of Queensland Press uses papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable
products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing
processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.
 In memory of those who died:

Donna Rice, 43, and her son Jordan Rice, 13 – ​Toowoomba

Steve Matthews, 56, and his wife Sandra Matthews, 46 – ​
Spring Bluff
Selwyn Schefe, 52, and his daughter Katie Schefe, six – ​
Murphys Creek
Sylvia Baillie, 72 – ​Postmans Ridge
Bruce Warhurst, 60 – ​Postmans Ridge
James Perry, 40 – ​Toowoomba
Pauline Magner, 65, Dawn Radke, 56, and their granddaughter Jessica
Keep, 23 months – ​Grantham
Christopher Face, 63, Brenda Ross, 56, and her son
Joshua Ross, 25 – ​Grantham
Llync-Chiann Clarke, 31, and her children Garry Jibson, 12, and
Jocelyn Jibson, five – ​Grantham
Jean Gurr, 88 – ​Grantham
Bruce Marshall, 67 – ​Grantham
Reinskje ‘Regina’ van der Werff, 86 – ​Grantham

And to all the survivors for whom every new day is both a challenge
and an opportunity.
 Contents

˜
Introduction to the second edition ix
Preface to the first edition xiii
From drought to flood 1
Spring Bluff 11
Murphys Creek 22
Toowoomba36
Withcott54
Postmans Ridge 65
Helidon83
Carpendale100
Grantham113
The aftermath 153
Rebuilding170
Controversy183
Five years on 191

Appendices
1 Flash flood precautions 241
2 Why report on trauma? 245

Notes 251
Acknowledgements 259
 Introduction to the
second edition

Since reporting on the disaster and writing The Torrent, I have

kept in touch with many of the flood survivors and followed the sub-
sequent investigations. The flood deaths in the Lockyer Valley were
noted at the original Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry,
held in Toowoomba in April 2011, but were not investigated specifi-
cally until a coronial inquest was launched in November 2011. The
inquest was told that the Queensland Police Service led the search for
missing people after the flood, asking 250 Australian Army person-
nel and 200 police to search 131 kilometres of creeks and rivers from
Spring Bluff to Brisbane and hundreds of dams. The entire creek
system was searched three times for bodies, but no trace was found of
three of the flood victims: James Perry, who died at Carpendale, and
Dawn Radke and Christopher Face, who both died at Grantham.
Throughout this time, I maintained contact with the flood survi-
vors via several Facebook pages, one for The Torrent, and one to share
information about the need for a separate inquiry into the disaster in
Grantham. The unprecedented nature of the flood in Grantham led
to several hydrology studies being carried out, but more than four
years after the disaster questions still remained about the possible

ix
 T h e To r r e n t

effect of the Grantham quarry on the ferocity of the flood and the
destruction it caused. A new chapter has been added to this book
about the controversy, which did result in the Grantham Inquiry
and, consequently, several defamation cases, some of which remain
on foot at the time of going to press.
My radio documentary The day that changed Grantham, aired
on ABC Radio National, won a Walkley Award in 2012, bringing
renewed interest in the plight of survivors and the need for improved
warning systems. Afterwards, the State Library of Queensland asked
for the recordings of my interviews to create an accessible online
archive of the event. This rare database captures for posterity the
experiences of people during and after a natural disaster.
In 2016, I drove to the Lockyer Valley to interview again the people
who had welcomed me so generously into their mud-soaked houses
and makeshift accommodation more than five years earlier. Return-
ing to the townships and rural districts was eerie. On the surface, the
fabric of the communities was restored and in places improved, com-
pared with pre-flood times. New roads, bridges, houses and shops
had been completed. Yet the lives of those people who were most
affected by the flood seemed to be forever changed from the trajec-
tory they had been travelling before the disaster.
Many flood survivors were still traumatised from the experience.
They spoke candidly with me about the challenges they had faced
rebuilding their lives. Grief, stress, ongoing financial difficulties, and
a lost sense of safety had all left their mark. Health problems had also
impeded recovery, with several people injured in the flood requiring
operations and many contracting itchy, painful skin rashes. Some
flood survivors were diagnosed with stress-related illnesses, cardiac
problems or cancers. In the six years since the flood, some of the
people who were most severely affected by the disaster have died of
chronic conditions or cancers.
My awareness and understanding of the experience of trauma and
recovery have developed significantly in the years following the flood.
Just as there were wide variations in the degree of trauma to which

x
 Introduction to thesecond edition

people were exposed during the disaster, I found there were wide
variations in the degree to which they have recovered. My increased
knowledge in this area meant that my follow-up interviews with the
flood survivors could better explore their experience of trauma and
their journeys towards recovery. I have outlined some of my find-
ings in the appendix ‘Why report on trauma?’ My recordings of the
second round of interviews will be added to the State Library of
Queensland’s flood archive.
Despite the overwhelming tragedy of the flood disaster in 2011,
I was inspired by the courage of civilians to rescue others in danger
even at the risk of their own lives. I was similarly inspired in 2016
by the extraordinary courage many people have shown in rebuilding
their lives. I am humbled and grateful that so many of the survivors
were willing to speak about their struggles and vulnerabilities. Their
collective wisdom will hopefully provide information that shapes
public policy regarding post-disaster support for people bereaved or
rendered homeless, injured or traumatised by the fury of a severe
weather event. The accounts here will also hopefully provide valida-
tion for readers who have or will endure a similar event, giving them
the necessary support and encouragement to make their own jour-
neys of recovery.

Amanda Gearing
December 2016

xi
 Preface to the
first edition

At my home on the Toowoomba escarpment, days of steady rain

became intense heavy rain – ​by far the heaviest I had seen since mov-
ing to the city in 1986. The huge La Niña system in the Pacific Ocean
that I had watched build up over the previous six months was now
delivering torrential rainfall. I used my camera to take video footage
of the road covered in rushing water and pooling before it tumbled
over the edge of the escarpment. I posted the video to Facebook at
12.49 pm. I also phoned my brother-in-law in Jindalee in Brisbane
and wrote a list of things for him to pack – ​photos, documents and
clothes – ​and told him to be ready to get out of his house because
Brisbane could be flooding in a couple of days.
Within about half an hour my friend Monica, who lives beside
the creek at Murphys Creek, phoned to say the water was almost up
to her house and that she had to get to higher ground. She was pan-
icking and couldn’t remember what to take. I read her the list I had
already made. Monica asked me to phone her husband Ian, and let
him know she was safe.
Monica and her teenage daughter Sophie packed three suitcases.
They waded through floodwater, carrying a suitcase each on their

xiii
 T h e To r r e n t

heads, to get to higher ground – ​a picnic table across the road. Sophie
returned to the house to bring the third suitcase across.
I posted to Facebook at 1.15 pm that the town of Murphys Creek
was flooded and residents were evacuating. Our local ABC radio sta-
tion was taken off networked programs and went to live broadcast
of the disaster, taking phone calls from people reporting on flooded
roads, landslides and raging creeks. At 1.30 pm I posted on Facebook
what I’d heard on the radio, that a landslide at Mount Kynoch had
cut the highway north of Toowoomba.
Minutes later, at 1.37 pm, Monica’s husband Ian was driving
home to Murphys Creek when he stopped at a flooded causeway.
Two women in a car went past him and into the water, where their
car stalled. They phoned triple zero and were told to climb onto the
roof of the car. That call was the first to alert emergency services that
there was flash flooding anywhere in Toowoomba or the Lockyer Val-
ley. The fire brigade dispatched two vehicles but neither could get to
the scene.
Ian drove to a nearby house and phoned triple zero but by then the
phone lines were jammed. Unable to contact emergency services, Ian
raced with a mate to rescue the women.
Within a few minutes of the flash flooding at Murphys Creek,
severe flash flooding was also striking Toowoomba city streets, and
the local ABC was taking talkback calls from people reporting
flooded streets and pedestrians and motorists being swept away. A
woman and child in a car had been swept down East Creek and were
feared drowned. The Brisbane chief-of-staff at The Australian phoned
me and asked me to report for the news­paper. I called a local pho-
tographer and went to East Creek, where a car was being dragged out
of the water. There were no bodies inside. By then the mobile phone
network was so overloaded it had melted down. I headed to the
Toowoomba CBD, where I knew from previous storms the flooding
would be worst – ​in Dent Street, outside Grand Central Shopping
Centre. Once there, I spoke to people who had seen the height of
the flood. I took eyewitness accounts and phoned them through to

xiv
 Preface to the first edition

colleagues at the newspaper. Once home, I used my landline to try

to confirm the number of people killed. Police could not confirm the
number of dead or missing.
I had not been able to contact Ian to let him know Monica and
Sophie had escaped from their house. I tried his mobile again and
finally got through. He told me he had rescued two women whose
car had been caught in the torrent, and that his friends Steve and
Sandy Matthews had been swept from their house.
Families of missing people in the Lockyer Valley were posting pho-
tos of their relatives to Facebook in the hope they would be found
somehow and recognised.
For the next three weeks I reported on the disaster and realised
more with each passing day that there would be long-term impacts
for the families and friends of those who had died, or those who had
narrowly escaped perilous situations. I also realised that the many
children involved would one day want to know – ​‘What happened?’
As I spoke to more and more survivors I discovered that many people
needed to find out what had happened around them to understand
why the disaster unfolded as it did, with little or no warning to most
people.
More than 100 people have taken part in my research for this book
in the hope that improvements can be made to warning systems and
disaster responses, and so that life and property may be protected in
the future. I am privileged to have been told these stories.

Amanda Gearing
October 2011

xv
 From drought to flood
‘Love, how are we going to pay the rent this week?’

‘The front steps are gone!’ Marie yelled. Her husband Peter hur-
ried up the hall just in time to see the front staircase of their highset
house floating down the main street. Muddy, churning water raged
past, three metres deep and rising fast. Within seconds, jets of water
began spurting up through knot-holes in the floor and between the
floorboards. Logs crashed against the timber walls. The house was
shaking. They needed help and they needed it fast.
Peter phoned the State Emergency Service (SES). He waited for
several rings. Someone picked up the phone and the line went dead.
Peter did not have time to phone again. He unplugged the computer
and lifted it higher, along with his DVD collection. Marie grabbed
their photo albums and put them up in the wardrobe in the bedroom.
Outside, the murky torrent was almost level with the windowsills.
Marie remembered the guinea pigs, and waded to the bathroom.
Downstairs, the car was swept from the garage and thrown into a
tree. Something hit the back verandah hard and shook the house.
The back steps and verandah smashed off.
Peter phoned the local bishop, told him they were flooded and
asked him to pray for them. He assured Peter he would. The phone

1
 T h e To r r e n t

went dead. As Marie entered the bathroom, a tree smashed through

the wall. She fell over in the water and came up spluttering. She was
panicking. ‘Help! Help! Help! Somebody help!’ she screamed. The
guinea pig cage had fallen over and the animals had swum for their
lives. One reached the bathroom basin and clung desperately to the
taps. Marie picked up the shocked, soaked animal. Peter hurried to
help Marie from the bathroom.
Suddenly the house bounced up like a cork. It floated a metre
higher in the water and was swept away. It hit a large tree and the
kitchen smashed off, setting the house spinning as it moved along.
Peter and Marie needed to get to the centre of the house.
They headed for the dining room. Their blue cattle dog Chloe was
standing on a floating couch. Chloe sprang on to Peter’s shoulder
and held on tightly as they waded into the dining room. Peter and
Marie stood in the water either side of the solid timber table, hold-
ing the dog and the guinea pig on the table. Marie was still crying
for help.
Peter remembered he needed his medications for the deep vein
thrombosis in his legs, and insulin for his newly diagnosed diabe-
tes. He waded to the bedroom and saw rushing water outside the
house, halfway up the windows. Water was swirling almost waist-
deep inside. They were fighting a losing battle.
Peter still had his mobile phone, so he dialled triple zero and asked
for the police. They asked him what he could see. He told them,
‘There’s all sorts of stuff floating down the street. There’s bird aviaries,
shipping containers, sheds, cars and wheels.’ Peter looked out the side
window and saw powerlines in the water. He told the operator, ‘And
you can add live wires to that.’ Peter gave their address at 11 Anzac
Avenue, Grantham, adding: ‘But don’t look for us here because the
water is taking us wherever it’s going to take us.’ Peter knew there was
not much the police or anyone else could do. The water was running
too fast for anybody to get close enough to help them. The operator
told them, ‘Try and hang on.’ As the phone line cut for the last time,
hanging on was all they could do now.

2
 From drought to flood

The house moved out of the yard. There were no more trees, just
a large, flat farm paddock. The house sped up and soon it was travel-
ling at what felt like 60 to 70 kilometres an hour. The trees and flood
debris, which had been slamming into the house, were now travelling
alongside it. The water was still roaring. Marie was frantic. Peter took
out his hearing aids and put them in his pocket so they wouldn’t get
wet. He wasn’t thinking very clearly. He needed to be able to hold on
to Marie to calm her, but he couldn’t hold the animals and comfort
her at the same time. He pulled out a drawer, tipped the paperwork
into the water and put the guinea pig in. The drawer drifted away
with the wet, shivering guinea pig aboard. Chloe the dog climbed
back onto Peter’s shoulder.
As the house sped across the paddock it missed other houses, went
between power poles along a road, under the powerlines, crossed over
a road and continued, at the mercy of the current, into the next
paddock.

Peter and Marie Van Straten had been retired for two years and had
always wanted to live in the country. They found a highset Queens-
lander for rent, on acreage in the small rural town of Grantham,
and moved in seven months before the flood. The new house in the
country provided them with a spacious home with prolific fruit trees
in the backyard and space for their guinea pigs and chickens. The
cheaper rent stretched their pension further, and they were accepted
warmly into the community. As winter passed and spring and sum-
mer rain arrived, the wide, flat farm paddocks became green, and
vegetable crops grew fast. As the rain continued, water began to lie
in the paddocks and the drains beside the roads. The water level in
Sandy Creek near their house rose and fell, but stayed within its
banks. On Boxing Day the creek brimmed over the banks, send-
ing muddy water flowing across the main road of the town, Anzac
Avenue, before subsiding again into the creek.
In the following weeks the water rose twice more. It ran under the
house a few centimetres deep and left a thin layer of slippery mud.

3
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