The 1974 Brisbane flood occurred in January 1974 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, when waterways in the city experienced significant flooding. The Brisbane River, which runs through the heart of the city, broke its banks and inundated the surrounding areas.

Flood waters in Brisbane

It had been an exceptionally wet summer, and by late January most of southern Queensland's river systems were nearing capacity. Cyclone Wanda pushed the systems to the limit, and drew the Monsoonal Trough southward, providing the additional rainfall to the Brisbane valley to produce widespread and severe flooding. The floods peaked at 6.6 meters according to the Port Office gauge at high tide at 2:15 am on January 29th.

Continual, non-stop, very heavy rain had fallen for three weeks, leading up to the flood, which occurred on Sunday, 27 January, 1974, during the Australia Day weekend. Large areas were inundated, with at least 6,700 homes flooded. Damage at the time was estimated at some $200 million (1974 Australian dollars). The 67,320 tonne Robert Miller unmoored and became adrift in the river. Two tugs were needed to control the large oil tanker.^[1] A barge was sunk after becoming caught under and damaging the Centenary Bridge.

Damages and Loss of Life

16 people lost their lives, mostly from drowning, in the suburbs of Yeronga, Newmarket, St Lucia and Ipswich. The total damage in Brisbane and the surrounding areas totalled over a staggering 800 million Australian dollars (1974 values). This flood is one of the worst recorded flooding in Australia to date.

Aftermath

After the flood, a series of flood mitigation measures were implemented in Southeast Queensland, expanding on previous works such as Wivenhoe Dam.

The floods were a defining event for a generation of Brisbane residents. 8,500 homes were flooded in Brisbane and Ipswich. 6000 of these could not be recovered from an inland sea of 200km formed by the flood waters.

This flood also had massive economic implications due to loss of export infrastructure.

See also

• List of disasters in Australia by death toll

References

External links

• The "Big Wet", Bureau of Meteorology
• Emergency Management Australia
• Known Floods in the Brisbane and Bremer River Basin, Bureau of Meteorology
• Flood History, Queensland State Disaster Management Group