Marge the rains are here

Most of you will know of the rain and storm event that has dumped large amounts of water and blustered and buffeted Central and South East Queensland with at times very damaging winds. Fortunately we were spared the tornadoes that have hit other areas of SEQ but we have had our share of rain. So far according to the BOM we have had 441mm since 9am on Friday the 25th. It's been very wet!

On Saturday and part of Sunday we were unable to get out due to the flooding. The Queensland department of Transport and Main Roads had a webpage of road closures. The information as of 8.00am Monday has us flooded in with no road out of the areas between Chuwar and Brookfield, although this information was not exactly accurate.

This bridge on Pullenvale Rd was flooded.

Map of flooded roads

Our house as shown with the blue cross is in the middle of the areas that were unable to get out due to road closures as shown by the red lines on Moggill road, the Moggill Ferry, Mt Crosby road and Kohlo road. By the time we got up and about Monday morning we were able to get out via Moggill Rd.

The extent of water inundation here

When we bought our house we were very cautious and selected a house that would not be flooded by storm water and river flows, the above photo shows our water inundation at its worse. This was due to a blocked ag drain pipe - a job to fix when the rain stops, aside form that we have been untouched, there is however quite a bit of debris to be cleaned up that has been blown in by high winds. We were lucky compared to so many others, some are still without power now!

One of the roads to the girls school was flooded by the Pullen Pullen Creek, school was cancelled Tuesday but open again Wednesday. The trip to school for Rosie was a long one due to a long detour caused by a fallen tree that was finally moved later Wednesday arvo. There is currently plenty of work for tree and shrub mulchers and removers.

Fallen tree Grandview Rd.

Poor Emily has a terrible case of gastro and has been unable to get to school, we are off to the Doctor today, four days of sickness and vomiting is too much, there is no way she will be better for school Friday.

We were without phone, internet and 3G services, these were gradually restored by very busy Telstra workers yesterday we got 3G and landline back and finally this morning we have interwebs access once again. You don't realise how much you rely on the web, for example we had only limited access to emergency mobile coverage when we needed to contact the school. We had no phone books and had no way of finding their number without the yellowpages website. Thankfully my Mum was able access their website to relay info for us via intermittent and unreliable sms access.

Dead Carpet Python

The rain caused quite a bit of activity from the local reptile population, a couple of turtles were run over on the roads escaping the wet and we saw a carpet python that we believe had drowned on the side of Pullenvale road. When Emily and I went for a run along the creek on Saturday morning (before the deluge) we saw what looked like a Saw Shelled Turtle Elseya latisternum, it was very different to the long necked turtles we are used to seeing and had a nasty looking mouth, it is also known as a Serrated Snapping Turtle.

On Tuesday a small Green Tree Snake Dendrelaphis punctulata tried to come inside to escape the wet, when I went to have a closer look at him he decided to escape my attention by climbing the gas bottles, thankfully they are non venomous and usually harmless to humans.

Green Tree Snake 

Last night we signed contracts for a swimming pool, Rogers Pools were the builder we chose. They commence by seeking planning approval immediately and earthworks commence as soon as planning approval is obtained. The contracted completion date is the first week of April, but hopes are high for an earlier completion. This will allow the girls to hammer the pool over the school holidays at the end of term one. We are pretty excited about the pool, however the amount of landscaping and work that I have to complete does not fill me with joy. I stupidly raised the idea of building some gabion pillars to  use as a basis to form a living wall to act as a privacy screen for our pool. Does anyone know how to build gabion pillars? If not I am sure I will be able to provide detailed instructions over the next few months!

There will be plenty of updates while the pool is being built, keep an eye out for the blog posts.