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, experienced the worst flooding.

It had been an exceptionally wet summer, and by late January most of southern Queenslands 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.

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).

Loss of Life

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14 people lost their lives. This included:

• Shane David Patterson, 2 years old, Yeronga. Swept from his father's arms in the floodwaters.
• Robert Adams, 56 years old, Newmarket. Suffered Heart Attack during evacuation of caravan park.
• Aiden Sutton, 50 years old, St Lucia. Drowned in own home after returning to collect eye glasses during the flood.
• Two male members of the Australian Military. Both thrown from an amphibious army vehicle when it struck a submerged power pole at Moggill.

Aftermath

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The floods peaked at 6.6 meters according to the Post Office gauge at high tide at 2:15 am on January 29th.

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

The floods were a defining event for a generation of Queenslanders. 8500 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.

See also

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• List of disasters in Australia by death toll

External links

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• Brisbane floods January 1974, Bureau of Meteorology
• 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

1974 in Australia | Disasters in Australia | History of Brisbane