Health problems had also impeded recovery, with several people injured in the flood requiring operations and many contracting itchy, painful skin rashes. Grief, stress, ongoing financial difficulties, and a lost sense of safety had all left their mark. They spoke candidly with me about the challenges they had faced rebuilding their lives.
Many flood survivors were still traumatised from the experience. Yet the lives of those people who were most affected by the flood seemed to be forever changed from the trajectory they had been travelling before the disaster. New roads, bridges, houses and shops had been completed. On the surface, the fabric of the communities was restored and in places improved, compared with pre-flood times. Returning to the townships and rural districts was eerie. In 2016, I drove to the Lockyer Valley to interview again the people who had welcomed me so generously into their mud-soaked houses and makeshift accommodation more than five years earlier. This rare database captures for posterity the experiences of people during and after a natural disaster.
Paranormal lockdown torrent archive#
Afterwards, the State Library of Queensland asked for the recordings of my interviews to create an accessible online archive of the event. My radio documentary The day that changed Grantham, aired on ABC Radio National, won a Walkley Award in 2012, bringing renewed interest in the plight of survivors and the need for improved warning systems. A new chapter has been added to this book about the controversy, which did result in the Grantham Inquiry and, consequently, several defamation cases, some of which remain on foot at the time of going to press. The unprecedented nature of the flood in Grantham led to several hydrology studies being carried out, but more than four years after the disaster questions still remained about the possible effect of the Grantham quarry on the ferocity of the flood and the destruction it caused.
Throughout this time, I maintained contact with the flood survivors via several Facebook pages, one for The Torrent, and one to share information about the need for a separate inquiry into the disaster in Grantham. The entire creek system was searched three times for bodies, but no trace was found of three of the flood victims: James Perry, who died at Carpendale, and Dawn Radke and Christopher Face, who both died at Grantham. The inquest was told that the Queensland Police Service led the search for missing people after the flood, asking 250 Australian Army personnel and 200 police to search 131 kilometres of creeks and rivers from Spring Bluff to Brisbane and hundreds of dams. The flood deaths in the Lockyer Valley were noted at the original Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry, held in Toowoomba in April 2011, but were not investigated specifically until a coronial inquest was launched in November 2011. Since reporting on the disaster and writing The Torrent, I have kept in touch with many of the flood survivors and followed the subsequent investigations. ContentsĪcknowledgements Introduction to the second edition Reinskje ‘Regina’ van der Werff, 86 – GranthamĪnd to all the survivors for whom every new day is both a challenge and an opportunity. Llync-Chiann Clarke, 31, and her children Garry Jibson, 12, and Jocelyn Jibson, five – Grantham Pauline Magner, 65, Dawn Radke, 56, and their granddaughter Jessica Keep, 23 months – GranthamĬhristopher Face, 63, Brenda Ross, 56, and her son Joshua Ross, 25 – Grantham Selwyn Schefe, 52, and his daughter Katie Schefe, six – Murphys Creek Steve Matthews, 56, and his wife Sandra Matthews, 46 – Spring Bluff Amanda completed a Master of Arts (Research) in 2012 and a PhD in global investigative journalism in 2016.ĭonna Rice, 43, and her son Jordan Rice, 13 – Toowoomba She worked for The Courier-Mail from 1997–2007, based in Toowoomba, before becoming a freelance print and radio journalist for media outlets including The Australian and ABC Radio National. Amanda Gearing is a Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist.
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