The chief event in the recent history of Queensland was the
disaster due to floods in the south-eastern part of the colony, which
occurred in the early days of February, 1893. Nothing in the
history of Australia ever equalled, in this kind, the mischief
wrought in the valleys of the Brisbane and Bremer rivers through
a downpour of which dwellers in the British Isles can form slight
conception. For seven days and nights, without intermission, the
rain came down in sheets that quickly filled every gully, whence
torrents rushed to swell the water-courses and so send a deluge
over the land. The towns of Gympie and Maryborough, respec-
tively 116 and 170 miles north of Brisbane, suffered severely.
Ipswich, 23 miles west of the capital, was badly flooded. The
country around Toowoomba, on the Darling Downs, about 80
miles further west than Ipswich, presented a scene of utter desola-
tion. The most severe loss was incurred at Brisbane, where the
river rose nearly 10 feet higher than during the calamitous floods
of January, 1890, and, covering the low-lying suburb of working-
class people, in the district called Fortitude Valley, to the depth
of 50 feet, demolished several factories, and above 500 houses,
which were there chiefly built of the native hard woods, with
shingle roofs, the structures being raised on short trunks of
timber, metal-capped, in order to preserve them from the ravages
of "white ants". Around three, and sometimes four, sides of
the house a verandah runs, wide enough to serve as a place for
meals in the hot season. Such buildings could offer no resistance
to so mighty a flood, and were forthwith swept away with serious
loss of life. Some of the chief thoroughfares of the city proper,
on higher ground, were flooded. Six miles above the capital, the
railway-bridge spanning the Brisbane at Indooroopilly fell with
a thunderous roar, and its piers and girders were swept away.
The crowning mischief came when communication between North
and South Brisbane was cut off by the demolition of the massive
and magnificent Victoria Bridge, an iron swing structure on the
lattice-girder principle, 1080 feet long, which took over nine years
in building at a cost of a quarter of a million sterling. The scene
at this point was one of terrible interest for many hours before the
event. Above a hundred houses and great sheds, between the
afternoon of Saturday, February 4th, and Sunday night, were
borne down upon the bridge and crushed to pieces. In one case,