2013 floods, from my eyes, and lens - Part One

I must admit that when I first drove to Burnett Heads, I was so shocked to see the damage from the mini-tornadoes, I could not bring myself to photograph the carnage wreaked by Mother Nature. Recording the misfortunes of others I could not do. The dismembered houses and fences covering the streets, power poles at all angles and the trees just broken off at the base, scattered everywhere.

Now what the media have ignored is that many people live in boats of all shapes and sizes on the Burnett River. One of the attraction to Bundaberg for yachties is that they can sail up the river and moor in the middle of the CBD at Midtown Marinas.

 Now their homes are either sunk, washed out to sea, or dragged by the current downstream. The banks of the river and the beaches from Burnett Heads to Woodgate are littered with bits of broken up boats and some lucky ones which are relatively intact, like this boat at Bargara

After this photo was taken, a hole on the side of the boat was being welded up and they were confident of re-floating it. It was one of the lucky ones.

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 The boat in the next photo was dragged from upstream somewhere with it's 2 tonne concrete mooring, down the river.. This poor fellow got caught out with no warning of the impending flood - he had a toddler onboard with him. The brave volunteers at VMR pushed the rescue cat up the river to the area opposite the sugar terminal to rescue both soles from potential death.

The next day, the boat was gone - I don't know whether it sank or was washed out to sea.

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Next I have possibly the last ever photo of the cane-ferry - not the greatest photo but it was taken a full zoom from the sugar terminal.

The cane ferry (used for moving trucks of cane across the river)

It was last seen upside-down, somewhere out to sea.

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Here are a couple of photos of the tug terminal - luckily the line boat in the first photo was slipped (taken out of the water) a couple of days before the floods. The (Bundy-based) tug in the first photo, the "Ballina", together with visiting tug "PT Monto" were moved to the main wharf at the sugar terminal. The "moth-balled" tugs "Broadsound" and "Belyando" remained at the molasses wharf. Crews for these two tugs were flown in, in case they need to be moved.

April 2011

January 2013

New bridge for Bundaberg ????

Where do I start ?? Firstly I apologise for the recent lack of blogging late last year - I guess I was blogged out!!!

First item for this year was the arrival, assembly and placement of a large barge which arrived in Bundaberg from Newcastle on three semi-trailers. The two barge halves were placed in the water by the ship-lift at the Port Marina, and then Stewart's largest crane assisted with the assembly and fitout of the barge.

The two barge sections with a green container mounted across them.

After I left the site, the spud poles, the excavator and a drilling rig were loaded onto the barge, before it was pushed upstream by that small tender seen in this photo.

Interestingly, the destination for the barge was the area of the cane-ferry crsssing which is one of the narrowest sections of the Burnett River. 

Now, the only information I could glean from the contractors was that they are testing the ground (taking core samples) for a possible new bridge.

Unanswered questions in my mind (at the time, I might add) -

1. Would this open up Bundaberg Port to potential coal exports?
2. Why build a bridge there when it would be more useful closer to the CBD, say just downstream from the sugar mill, where it could relieve some pressure from Quay Street?