History tells us floods are natural

19-January-2011

While devastating floodwaters recede in the north even as they rise in the south, Australians are understandably shocked by what has occurred in the past few weeks.

It could happen again. Photo: Getty Images.

The extent of the tragedy and loss of life, property and infrastructure is indeed numbing. It is heartbreaking. And it is incomprehensible to those of us not directly involved.

But the downpour, while rare, is not of itself unique.

The lessons of history point to similar events of equal or even greater magnitude peppered relatively regularly through the 200 plus year of our recorded history (and indeed alluded to in indigenous Dreamtime stories).

In Brisbane and Ipswich the flood of 1974 is "living memory" legend. But in fact the Brisbane River experienced major flood incidents in 1841, 1890, 1893, 1931 and 1974. Indeed, the highest to date was the 1841 flood, and the highest in the Brisbane CBD was the 1893 flood.

That’s an average of a major flood less than every 30 years. And they are even more frequent on the Bremer River, which runs through Ipswich.

Yet for some reason, prior to this month, many people seemed to adopt an "it couldn’t happen again" approach and turned a blind eye to the lessons of history.

Instead of actively planning for the inevitable reoccurrence of a devastating flood, it appears that many town planners, engineers and above all their political masters, have simply denied the past.

Yes, the Wivenhoe Dam was built as part of a flood mitigation strategy after 1974. But in recent times it wasn’t managed as part of that strategy. Water was kept in storage rather than released ahead of the big wet – almost in denial of the Dam’s original purpose.

Maybe those in charge too readily believed the hype of Flannery and his alarmist friends that the human race had become all-powerful "weather makers" scorching the earth. Certainly in 2007 former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie argued that it would never rain to such an extent again due to mankind’s impact on the planet.

Conveniently, the "big wet" is now being blamed on climate change, just as the drought before it was.

But these cyclical weather patterns, with random extreme events, have always been part of our nation’s and indeed our planet’s history. They are not new. They are not more ferocious. They are not "payback" for the Queensland Coal Industry (thanks for that inane contribution Bob Brown).

They are not nature’s way of punishing modern man for his sins. They are simply natural events.

Tragically, more people and property are affected in a modern event than in those of the past because we have so many more people living in flood prone areas.

And because we have, to some extent, either ignored the lessons of the past or somehow arrogantly assumed that we have the power to alter age-old weather phenomena.

With the clean up in Queensland, NSW and Tasmania underway and some towns in Victoria and South Australia still facing threats, many argue now is not the time for recriminations.

But the time will come when, instead of denying the predictability of such an event and feebly arguing that nothing could have been done or, at the other extreme, attributing it all to man’s impact on our planet, we should get out the history books and take a close look at what happened in the past – even before man started pumping CO2 into the atmosphere.

We should learn the lessons of the past, know that another extreme event is inevitable, and we should use all our technology and resources to ensure we are better prepared to mitigate the impact of such an event.

Man won’t stop flooding rains, droughts or bushfires – but we can manage our built environment and environmental assets in a way that ensures their effect is less devastating.

It would only compound the tragedy if, in our shock and grief, we deny the lessons of history and stumble forward with an "it couldn’t happen again" approach.