THE FLOODS IN QUEENSLAND.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8743, 1 April 1890, Page 2

THE FLOODS IN QUEENSLAND.

BRISBANE UNDER WATER. We are indebted to Mr W. It. King for the following extract received by him from his son, who is now at Brisbane, in which the flood there is very graphically described : — " The papers, as you see, are full of the floods, but they do not, and cannot, describe things as they really are. They beggar description. Take Stanley-street as one instance. Here is a long flat street with shops, banks, hotels, warehouses, stores, &c., as closely packed as the buildings are from the White Hart to Mr J. C. George's, but extending as far as from your Post-office to the Waiwakaiho bridge, covered with water; one dry space near the bridge of about one chain only being dry. Not a sudden rush of water, but a gradual rise, inch by inch, from Sunday until Thursday. Many of the houses were built below the street, some like Black's corner used to bo-; these were completely submerged, whilst those on tho level of the road had as much as eight feet in each room for days. Others had, in other places, 25 feet. Not a few people, but thousands of homes were wrecked. All the low lying vales, &c, along the river were treated in this way. Of course they never dreamt that the waters would continue to rise. You will unde: stand the water did not rush past the houses — fortunately not, or they would all have been swept away. The main stream rush of the river kept the river course, the back water rising to the level of the river as smooth water. It is difficult to convey to your minds how this conies about. Well, look at any stream, and you will find whilst the main current proceeds there arc quiot smooth little bays, so to speak, here and there, of comparatively still water. I suppose there were more people flooded out in South Brisbane alone (the Stanleystreet referred to being part thereof) than there are in New Plymouth and Waitara put together. Then in the City Central much the same state of affairs existed, whilst what we call the Valley District was most pitiableof all. I say was, it is still; for now the waters have somewhat subsided there is all tho slime and filth which has ruined and damaged the furniture, etc. It is computed that there are some thousands of houses — homes — thus ruthlessly dealt with. Some houses wero washed away altogether, one, a two-story building, came booming down the current, and some sheds, etc., near the banks of the river gave way ; but in the main it was not so much a rushing flood as a silent inundation that effected the damage. Take Rosalie and Milton, two sweetly pretty little suburbs. They lie on a little stream running into the Brisbane, and as the Brisbane River rose so the water backed up, and lo and behold, you see the bay of Rosalie and Milton Bight with hero and there a house top or a chimney showing like pinnacles of rocks.