As local communities along much of the east coast deal with the muddy aftermath of extraordinary rainfall, aerial images begin to show the scale of this disaster.
Just days after our saturated rivers and creeks broke their banks, flights for location intelligence company Nearmap dodged clouds and continuing wild weather from Gympie to Grafton — a 500km stretch — to capture this imagery.
Eleven years after being hit by huge floods, south-east Queensland was first in the firing line, as a La Niña pattern turbocharged by climate change created a weather system that dumped unprecedented amounts of rain, causing flooding and widespread destruction.
Last Wednesday, nearly 400mm of rain fell near the town of Gympie — a taste of what was to come for communities along the coast.
And the rain just didn't stop.
Gympie experienced its worst flood since the 1880s, and parts of nearby Noosa were also affected.
The rain slowly moved south, and locals in the town of Grantham evacuated in water up to their waist, while others were rescued from their roofs.
Nineteen people in Grantham and the surrounding Lockyer Valley died when the area was hit by a wall of water just over a decade ago.
While the flooding this time wasn't as devastating, residents have still returned home to a massive clean-up task.
A record-breaking deluge
As the system lingered, low-lying areas in Brisbane began to flood. But it was a record-breaking downpour on Sunday that caused much of the damage in the city, as water built up in the creeks and gullies, with no way of draining quickly.
In four days 739mm fell on the Queensland capital — nearly three-quarters of its annual average.
Authorities say the saturated creeks meant every suburb was affected this time around.
Oxley Creek runs through several of the city's southern suburbs, including Rocklea.
The area around the Brisbane Markets is prone to flooding, and this time the water wasn't moving on.
While the waters had receded in much of the city, large parts of Rocklea were still inundated when these images were taken.
Even though the creeks were responsible for much of the damage, the Brisbane River still peaked above the major flood level.
The peak was lower than in 2011.
But here at Albion in the inner north, the river still covered a major road, several days on.
Flooding around much of the city centre receded in a couple of days, but the murky waters left their mark.
The river was awash with debris from further upstream, and Brisbane's ferry terminals — rebuilt after 2011 — caught their fair share of it.
The raging waters nearly caused an incident when a crane on a pontoon, which was on the river to start work on a new bridge, broke free of its moorings.
The mud returns to Ipswich
Goodna, a suburb of Ipswich, to Brisbane's west, is adjacent to the Brisbane River.
And, as in 2011, houses and businesses were flooded.
Goodna locals were left to contemplate the task of rebuilding their lives again.
The disaster moves south
The damaging rain brought flooding all the way south of Brisbane, through Logan and Beenleigh.
A gap in the clouds allowed Nearmap to capture Tweed Heads stained brown by the floodwaters.
But this is only a fraction of the damage caused by the system. And by the time the rain left Queensland, 10 people had died.
Further south, the towns of Tumbulgum and Murwillumbah were inundated. And stories are emerging of landslides around Mullumbimby.
Lismore submerged
As south-east Queensland surveyed the damage, the northern NSW town of Lismore went under — facing a river peak more than two metres above the previous record set in 1954.
Locals were caught off guard by the amount of rain dumped on their town.
As the water rose, many were stranded on — or in — their roofs.
Terrifying stories have emerged of daring rescues by locals using their own boats.
Four people died in Lismore.Three days after the flood, the waters still hadn't fully receded.
The Richmond River High campus in the north of the town remained inundated.
As did parts of the town of Grafton — a 500km journey from Gympie.
And nearby Ulmarra and Southgate.
On the ground in Northern NSW, there is growing anger at the lack of support for flood victims. People are living in cars and running out of drinking water.
As forecasters warn of more possible wild weather in the weeks to come, for thousands of Australians the ordeal is far from over.
Credits
- Reporter/Producer: Tim Leslie
- Developer/Reporter: Colin Gourlay
- Editor: Cristen Tilley
