A huge piece of Boardwalk - 300 metres long and weighing around 1000 tonnes broke away and started to surge down the Brisbane River at about 10-12 knots, a Tug Captain heard this on the radio at 4 am in the morning and he and his engineer raced to his 50 foot tug, Mavis and fired up the 8000 horsepower engine, and ventured out into the surging river in the attempt to steer this walkway away from the supports of many bridges over the Brisbane River, specially the largest - the Gateway Bridge. He knew this now floating debris was a massive thing, as when it was originally installed, he and his tug helped put it there.
The Captain's comments afterwards were - very nonchalantly "We went up and straighted it up and sheparded it through the pylons of the bridge, and guided it down the river keeping it clear of all the marinas and pontoons -it wasn't much harder than that - it's what you gotta do."
A couple of happy chappies who averted disaster by steering a huge chunk of floating debris saving just a few of Brisbane' s bridges, Captain on the right and Engineer on the left (both are 65 years old) ******
"Little Montannah"
This little one was picked up and saved when the floods peaked at Forest Hill and they had to evacuate. The crew in the Black Hawk saw Montannah and her Mother in a field and went in to pull them up to safety - Montannah's mother had already written Miss M's name on her arm for security. Her mother remembers, the hard rain, the intensity of the moment and a white knight dressed in camouflage all coming together.
When the floods subsided, Montannah and her mother were flown back to Gatton, and met up again with Wo2 Young, the crewman, (who has a young son the same age) and who had whisked her up to the Chopper away from the floods.
"More Help from across the Tasman"
To assist with the clean up - the Kiwis are sending over hundreds of gumboots. These are definitely needed to wade through the thick silt, and trying to avoid infections from the clean up.
I found this photo of some Kiwi gumboots on a fence at Waiharara in the Northland of NZ - just love it.
Then of course there are the animals - below is a horse in a terrible situation it does not understand - you can see in its eyes that panic is setting in.
Toowoomba has more than 150 public parks and gardens., including Japanese and Botanic Gardens - This city and it's surrounds is an absolute picture in the spring and autumn.
Historic Spring Bluff Railway 
The Japanese Gardens Queens Park 
and University and Colleges
Toowoomba sits on the crest of the Great Dividing Range, around 700 metres (2,300ft) above sea level. A few streets are on the eastern side of the edge of the range, but most of the city is west of the divide. The City occupies the edge of the range and the low ridges behind it. Two valleys run north from the southern boundary, each arising from springs either side of the Middle Ridge near Spring Street at an altitude around 680 m. These waterways, East Creek and West Creek flow together just north of the CBD to form Gowrie Creek.
on the DARLING DOWNS.
People climbed up on to their roofs, some were rescued, but others stayed there all night - helicopters were eventually grounded because of the horrific fog and rain. Many houses were washed away and outlying towns look like a cyclone has been through them, buildings and houses are flattened - it is like an INLAND TSUNAMI. The Defence forces have been brought in, with most rescues having to be done by air as most of the roads are just wiped out. BUT the weather is getting worse, and soon again will be too treacherous for helicopters. 
And today, the town of St. George just near the New South Wales border is going to be flooded for the 2nd time in 10 months by the Balonne River. Frank and I spent a great week in St. George in 2006 - just a delightful country town, which had a lovely long walk through a great park along the banks of the Balonne River - we walked it every day - beautiful plants and rest areas -not any more.
Auntie Beryl made the birthday cake, and Auntie Nalda took on the candles, and managed to extinguish most of them.
(L to R) Auntie Beryl, Auntie Nalda's son in law, Rod, Auntie, daughter Ailsa and very good friend Wilma.
All the girls - Rod took the photo.
This morning the Brig is having a small air conditioner installed in his study, just to allow him to read and watch TV in a "fridge". He and I have a differing (big) of opinions on temperatures within the house, I'm not a great fan of air conditioners blasting away, quite happy with a ceiling fan doing its job most of the time, but the boy has to have the air conditioning going full blast - it's a bit like a southern winter within our house at times. Gail and Steve came over yesterday, and she said - "it's absolutely freezing in here", yep cousin, I know that - hence the airconditioner being installed in his Study, then I can switch that big thing OFF!!!
Kumi presented us with 10 courses to choose from - 5 western and 5 asian - excellent cuisine, so much choice and sooh good.
It was a lovely evening , also it was an early night for us all - which was how we had planned it - fast asleep way before the "changing of years". 
Then the livestock, goats, sheep, alpacas, horses and cattle just washed away, whole breeding herds just perished..
Emily, Margaret and Kevin's grand daughter posing in Sheffield, England in her Chrissie faux fur vest we sent her from downunder. Had a note from Emm and Jack's Dad this morning - we had given Jack a small World Globe - Dan say's he now knows where all the important places are - Sheffield, Chesterfield and Australia!!! These 2 also took a fancy to their ADVENT Calendar at the Barn.
