12 January 2011, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Well, Queensland is reeling this morning from the worst natural disaster in our history and possibly in the history of our nation. As we look across Queensland and see three quarters of our state having experienced the devastation of raging floodwaters, we now face a reconstruction task of post war proportions. That is how we are seeing it and that is the sort of steely determination that it will require to overcome what we have seen in the last three weeks.
As we have all watched with awe at the power of Mother Nature here and Ipswich and in Brisbane we are also very mindful that in the regions of Queensland people are still facing rising floodwaters.
Here in the southeast I think a number of people have woken up to some good news and some relief this morning but I have to stress that authorities in the south east are still on full alert. This continues to be a very dangerous situation.
But we also know that this morning, thousands of people in the southeast, literally thousands, have woken to the unbearable agony of their homes have been devastated, their businesses, their workplaces have been devastated and for some people it's been both their workplace and their homes, washed away.
For many others, they may not have water in their backyards but they have woken to the devastation of parts of their city. I don't think there is any more a powerful symbol than what's happened to the modern city of Brisbane than the sight of our floating walkway drifting down the Brisbane River this morning. The floating walkway is a much loved part of Brisbane. It is the modern face of a thriving, sophisticated capital city. It is a loss that we will all experience and there will be other experiences just like it. In neighbourhoods where people watched their parks, their swings, their recreational spaces, possibly their schools all devastated. So there's a lot of grief and there's a lot of pain, not only here in the southeast but in other parts of Queensland today.
Here in the southeast I wanted to acknowledge that overnight we had no emergency rescues. That is a great tribute to the people of this region. I am very proud of them. They did what we asked. We said 'please be sensible, make sensible decisions, move to higher ground, don't stay in dangerous situations' and they followed all the warnings, they co-operated with our emergency staff and I am very, very proud of our staff who were out there on the frontline last night. We had an enormous army of police, fire and rescue and emergency staff. They were assisted by about 400 defence personnel right across this region. It was an incredible effort overnight and I am very grateful to all of the people who heeded our warnings and helped our emergency staff keep us all safe.
When an event like this happens, you see the best come out in people and we've seen it already on our streets, people out there helping their neighbours and doing everything they can and what we're now seeing is an avalanche of people wanting to volunteer for the clean up, not only here in Brisbane but across the whole of the state.
But we'd also encourage people, please help your neighbours, your friends and your family first. If we help the people we know around us then that will make the task for the authorities that much easier. As I said at the start, we have seen here in our capital city a devastating event but it is no more devastating than those that we have seen in towns and cities right across regional Queensland for the last three weeks.
Debris in Grantham township in the wake of the 2011 floods.
Can I say to Queenslanders everywhere: Wherever you are and there are so many places to list, if you are in central Queensland, if you're in southwest Queensland, if you're in western Queensland, if you're in the Burnett Region, the Darling Downs, Toowoomba, the Lockyer Valley, Ipswich or Brisbane, all of those places have been affected by floods and I say to every one of those people in those areas and to Queenslanders in other parts of the state: as we weep for what we have lost, and as we grieve for family and friends, and we confront the challenge that is before us, I want us to remember who we are.
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We are Queenslanders; we're the people that they breed tough north of the border. We're the ones that they knock down and we get up again. I said earlier this week that this weather may break our hearts and it is doing that but it will not break our will and in the coming weeks and in the coming months we are going to prove that beyond any doubt. Together, we can pull through this and that's what I'm determined to do and with your help, we can achieve that. Thank you."