Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Brisbane Catholics look back on the highs and lows of the 2011 floods

byPeter Bugden
7 January 2021
Reading Time: 4 mins read
AA

Unforgettable disaster: It’s the 10th anniversary of floods that brought widespread devastation to South-East Queensland in January 2011.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Unforgettable disaster: It’s the 10th anniversary of floods that brought widespread devastation to South-East Queensland in January 2011.

MEMORIES of nine families taking refuge under one roof and the tide of community spirit that rose after South-East Queensland’s 2011 floods loom large for Ravina Waldren as the 10th anniversary of the disaster comes around.

Ms Waldren, co-ordinator of Murri Ministry, was among the first to rally supporters to respond to the desperate need of flood victims across Brisbane and Ipswich, from Goodna to Grantham.

It’s been 10 years since the floods in which 35 people died and which ruined houses and businesses in dozens of suburbs.

Murri Ministry’s effort was part of a community response that swept through the suburbs during that January in the wake of the devastation.

For the Centacare agency and its supporters, it was a lot of work and lasted long after the floodwaters had receded.

“During the floods we were taking out clothes, we were taking out food, (and) we ended up applying to the council to get a grant and we were able to provide families with washing machines,” Ms Waldren said.

“We were providing household items – you name it … we were collecting them, and people here in Brisbane in the parishes were dropping off (donated goods) to Murri Ministry …”

Ms Waldren remembers how Aunty Narella Simpson, of the Aboriginal Baptist community at Ipswich, welcomed into her home nine families whose houses had been flooded.

“Aunty Narella, she just welcomed everybody into her home,” she said.

“Even though they had nothing to give but everybody needed a roof over their head and a dry bed at the end of the day …

Related Stories

Do you seriously think God can’t use you?

Centacare called up to help with hardest-hit families in Maryborough floods, Lismore bishop gives hope to his flock

Flood swamps Ash Wednesday plans for Maryborough faithful

“And some of the families, they’re good friends and their souls just connected. It’s beautiful to see – that loving support.”

At the height of the recovery effort, Murri Ministry was supporting about 50 families across a wide area including Ipswich, Grantham, Bundamba, Riverview, Goodna, Fairfield and West End, as well as Cherbourg.

“(The floods) had a devastating effect on people all over, everywhere,” Ms Waldren said.

“It was just devastating; it really was.

“… We were continually supplying food, meals. We were cooking meals for (some people).

“They had lost everything.

“We hope that we never see that again – it was just horrible.”

But the way people responded inspired Ms Waldren.

“It was wonderful to see how everybody just rallied around and helped, and even though a lot of people had nothing, they still gave something to help their neighbours out,” she said.

“It was nice to see the Brisbane community come together and helping each other out in that spirit, and the churches were very good too in donating what they could.”

People remembered that at a recent Christmas lunch for the Murri Christian community at Goodna.

“We met the elders that we had helped a long time ago,” Ms Waldren said.

“It was just lovely to catch up with everybody.”

Conversation automatically turned to the floods, and one of the memories that came up was curtains.

“Sewing machines were taken out there to help a couple of the sewers to make curtains, and that’s (one of the things) they remember,” Ms Waldren said.

“It’s good to be able to be friends in need.”

That was especially true during the long period after the floods when the provision of insurance money was slow.

“We had one beautiful family in West End, they had lost everything and then their insurance money came through for them, so they wanted to give $10,000 to the community out at Bundamba who’d really suffered, to buy them white goods …,” Ms Waldren said.

She said some of the flood victims Murri Ministry helped hadn’t fully recovered.

“I guess it’s just that worry for them every time we’re going to have a bit of a rainfall because it was just incredible the amount of water (that came with the floods).

“But, the people are just so glad for anything and everything you give, and that’s the beautiful thing of giving and I think as Christians that’s what we do.

“Everybody who works within the Church we’re forever looking after each other, and I think that’s beautiful.

“We’re so blessed to be able to do that and have the freedom to do that for each other, and I think that’s the wonderful thing of giving.”

ShareTweet
Previous Post

‘Appalling’ – President Trump supporters storm Capitol Building and halt electoral college vote count

Next Post

Brisbane Oratory ordains first man in pre-Christmas milestone

Peter Bugden

Related Posts

Evergreen: Harriette Thompson was an American classical pianist who later held the record for the oldest woman to run a marathon, at age 92, and also the oldest woman to complete a half-marathon, at 94.
Faith

Do you seriously think God can’t use you?

2 April 2022
Flood swamps Ash Wednesday plans for Maryborough faithful
QLD

Centacare called up to help with hardest-hit families in Maryborough floods, Lismore bishop gives hope to his flock

4 March 2022
Flood swamps Ash Wednesday plans for Maryborough faithful

Flood swamps Ash Wednesday plans for Maryborough faithful

1 March 2022
Next Post

Brisbane Oratory ordains first man in pre-Christmas milestone

Canossian Sisters transfer aged care works to Ozcare

People with low income face stress in the private rental market

Greater Brisbane plunged into three-day lockdown to stop spread of UK COVID variant

Popular News

  • Mary Mother of Mercy Church

    Christianity still top, but numbers decline amidst a secular shift

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Three Queensland deacons preparing for priestly ordinations in the next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Pope Francis asks for prayers after 50 migrants found dead in Texas trailer truck

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Secret baptisms show how Christians still persecuted worldwide
World

Secret baptisms show how Christians still persecuted worldwide

by Joe Higgins
29 June 2022
0

A LINE of catechumens with their faces blurred stood on a muddy track in a remote area...

Tragedy: Debra Ponce, left, and Angelita Olvera of San Antonio mourn near the scene where dozens of immigrants were found dead inside a trailer truck a day earlier on June 28. Photo: CNS

Pope Francis asks for prayers after 50 migrants found dead in Texas trailer truck

29 June 2022
Mary Mother of Mercy Church

Christianity still top, but numbers decline amidst a secular shift

28 June 2022
Q&A – Who is the little-known patron saint of the Swiss Guard?

Q&A – Who is the little-known patron saint of the Swiss Guard?

27 June 2022
Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

Abdallah family deliver powerful Vatican speech

27 June 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping