Floods in Gympie where Breville lives

Rattler keeps flood-split Gympie connected

By Jodie van de Wetering

As floodwaters from the swollen Mary River continue to bisect the southeast Queensland city of Gympie, residents and supplies are getting from one side of town to the other thanks to a vintage rail motor.

The Mary Valley Heritage Railway is best known for the Valley Rattler, a stream train which winds its way through the hinterland west of Gympie.

But the group's vice president Peter Alder says when the roads go out in Gympie, the train steps in.

"It's part of the flood plan here, when the river rises enough that road access to the Monkland side of town is cut, we start running a shuttle service with our rail motor."

The shuttle service has been running since Monday morning, and so far about 1,200 rides have been taken - that's 600 people taking a return journey. Mr Alder says they are also transporting supplies from bread and milk to medication.
Many of their customers are workers who cannot get to their workplace by road, although they have also carried emergency services workers, people travelling to help flood-stricken friends and relatives, and people making mercy missions to feed stranded animals.

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The CBD will re-open next week

My Camping Grounds at Imbil

Into the Mary, the Yabba Creek flows and on to Gympie to flood its CBD.  Jan used to walk up to the bridge from within the Island Reach Caravan Park to get to town.

No Power or phones for a week

And on to Maryborough

From Gympie, the flood water in the Mary River moved on to flood Maryborough and you remember Maryborough.  We got lost in Maryborough looking for a lagoon that Mum wanted to find.  I remember Maryborough best for the MacDonalds breakfast and badly needed toilet.  Not to mention the markets downtown causing barricaded streets and the stupid search for cheaper petrol. 

 

 

This is Theodore

A Central Queensland town I camped in after leaving Cracow in April 2007.  It is one of the few places where campers can get gas and a supermarket without going all the way to Moura. Theodore is on the Burnett River but this is a suburban street and the whole town was evacuated and only just moving back.

Chinchilla

Here we have Chinchilla underwater

Last year we lost Australian topsoil from the

wind, not the water

From Toowoomba to Withcott to Grantham to all the Lockyer Valley then Ipswich and on to Brisbane via the Wivenhoe Dam the water went.

The waters recede in Brisbane today and the bullshark swimming in the streets of Goodna is not to be found.  The more usual sights in our area are those of swimming snakes trying to find higher ground/trees/posts.

Many people are leaving evacuation centres to go back home to cleanup today.  It seems Goodiwindi's levy will protect the town because the worst is over there too.  But now Great Western Victoria has to deal with flooding.  It all started with Rockhampton and Emerald.