What a difference a decade makes: Wivenhoe Dam then and now
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Wivenhoe Dam reached its highest-ever level on January 11, 2011 – a day like no other for the main supplier of Brisbane s drinking water.
On that fateful day, Seqwater, the manager of Wivenhoe and Somerset dams, was urgently juggling the rate of dam water releases to prevent a major flooding problem for Ipswich and Brisbane.
Water being released from Wivenhoe Dam on January 11, 2011. The dam reached its highest-ever level on this day.
Queenslanders share their memories of the 2011 floods on tenth anniversary of disaster
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Cars float in surging floodwaters down main street of Toowoomba after an inland tsunami hit the city on January 10, 2011
(ABC News)
Queenslanders share their memories of the floods of 2011 after an inland tsunami thrust cars into trees, water tanks onto roads and swept away an entire town, killing 36 people.
The first sound Murray Imms remembers was the roar of the water surging towards his Lockyer Valley home.
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Subscriber only OFTEN overshadowed by the horror events of 2013, the 2010/11 Bundaberg floods were the worst in 40 years, ripping through homes, businesses and bringing about a temporary closure of the port. The days of December 28-29 saw the worst of the flooding event.
Boats on the Burnett River during the 2010 floods: Footage of boats on the Burnett River during the 2010 floods. Hundreds of homes were evacuated in the event, sparking fears of looting. Water St s Simon Jackson, who had been ferrying people from their inundated homes, told the
NewsMail he was exhausted, hadn t slept and feared looters would visit empty homes.
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Even though 10 years have passed, SES Area Controller of the Capricornia region Patrick Downing still remembers the chaos of having to evacuate Theodore during the 2010-11 Queensland floods.
On Christmas Day in 2010, Cyclone Tasha crossed the northern Queensland coast and brought disaster to every river system south of the Tropic of Capricorn, and as far west as Longreach and Charleville.
The flooding engulfed Central Queensland towns Alpha, Jericho, Theodore, Emerald and Rockhampton.
There was a mandatory evacuation for Theodore on December 29, 2010 â the first in Queenslandâs history.
In addition to the Theodore evacuation, the Queensland floods also impacted Rockhampton, with the Fitzroy River peaking at 9.2m.