Water, water everywhere

It was four years ago when Richard Vaughan first went to Australia. He initially travelled around seeing the place, and he got to know and like the country. With his qualification in mechanical engineering, Richard, who is from Kells, sought and found work and settled into a new life in Brisbane. Sponsored by a company, he had little difficulty in getting a working visa. Then, a few weeks ago, the floods came, in Biblical proportions. Vaughan (27) has seen spectacular weather events in Australia such as the electrical storms that frequently erupt across the Brisbane skyline. But what he hadn't seen was the type of devastation floods can cause - and the sights, sounds and smells he experienced will stay with him for a long time. Vaughan was working on a hospital project further down the Gold Coast when he got a call to say that the floods had hit. He quickly made the commute back to Brisbane. He knew that the house where he lived was in danger and he wanted to see what he could do. “Lucky enough, we live in a tree-level house and we're close to the river. Houses further down from us were affected. If the floods had peaked as they said they would, it would have affected our house but lucky enough they didn't peak,†he said as some semblance of normal life resumed. “We had no electricity or no hot water for the entire week, although they're back now. Just five minutes down the road, houses got pretty damaged so we were very lucky we didn't get it.†One of the many images Richard Vaughan will retain from the emergency was the sight of Irish and Australians joining forces to clear a thick film of mud off the only GAA pitch in the city at Willawong. A former soccer player with Kells Celtic, Richard also turned out in the green and red of Drumbaragh GFC back home. Once he moved to Brisbane, he quickly became involved with the Easts Gaelic football team. They share the same ground with other GAA clubs in the city, the Harps and the Shamrocks. “The ground was seriously damaged, it got an awful doing. It was covered in mud and the stench, the smell of dead animals, is pretty bad around that area. It's pretty bad,†he said. “They had to gut the whole kitchen out of the clubhouse, the dressing rooms had to be power-hosed. There's a guy who actually looks after the grounds and his hut and caravan were hit, destroyed, with 2.4 metres of water covering the pitch.†It took Richard and his girlfriend, Elizabeth, two hours to get to the ground, normally a 20-minute journey. They were “shocked†to see how many Irish and Australians were working together to help out. “We all got our hands dirty, it was good,†he added. Richard Vaughan lives close to where the Hawthorne ferry stop on the Brisbane river is located. He says it was “ridiculous†to see pontoons and huge rubbish bins floating down streets. “You name it, it was going down the river,†he added. There are many Meath people in Brisbane, quite a few working for Willie Dolan, a Kells man who has set up his own own construction company, and sponsors Easts. There are apects of Ireland that Richard still misses. But despite the recent devastation visited upon the city he now calls home, he is content in Australia and likes most things about the country, although he would be happy if he never again saw the natural disaster that has befallen much of Brisbane. BRÍD GUY'S STORY When Bríd Guy boarded the plane for Brisbane a few weeks ago she could hardly have imagined she would be flying slap-bang into one of the most devastating natural disasters to hit Australia in decades. Bríd, who is from Boardsmill and played football and camogie for Meath, arrived in the Queensland city literally hours before the rain clouds proceeded to dump vast quantities of water on the city. She was in Brisbane to sample life in the city that is known locally as 'Brissie' and which has become a new destination for thousands of young Irish emigrants. She was also there to meet her boyfriend, Jimmy Canty, the former Meath hurler, who is working in the engineering sector. The young Boardsmill woman got a ringside seat to the devastating damage the floods which have caused billions of dollars worth of damage. The disaster also prompted Queensland state premier Anna Bligh to come out with the memorable rallying call: “It might be breaking our hearts at the moment but it will never break our will.†A qualified interior designer, Bríd was hoping to nail down a position in that profession or obtain an administrative post in Brisbane. With a year-long visa, the twentysomething Boardsmill woman has time on her side. Her early efforts to get a job had been stymied by the fact that, when she spoke to the Meath Chronicle last Wednesday, many of the job agencies simply weren't open. They also had become the victim of the floods. From her sixth-floor apartment, she was just a short walk away from one of the bridges that spanned the Brisbane river. At the height of the floods she saw how normal life in the city was brought to a halt. “Literally, the apartment block was like a little island with the water around it,†she recalled. “From the top floor of the apartment building, you could look across at the Brisbane river and you could see a lot of boats, walkways, pontoons floating around. Everything was been literally flushed down the river.†Residents in the area where Bríd lives found themselves without electricity for almost a week - a big challenge as the average temperature in Brisbane at this time of the year is close to 30 degrees Celcius. “We had done a big shop just before the floods arrived, then we had to throw almost everything out. You ended up paying more for stuff because they couldn't get any more into the shops,†she added. “There was no air conditioning, no shower, it was a nightmare. We were going to try and go to Sydney but the airport road was closed - we couldn't even get out of the city. The traffic lights weren't working, the whole place was at a standstill. It was going from one extreme to another - the sub-zero temperatures in Ireland to the floods.†One way the residents of the apartment building could cool off was by using a swimming pool located on the 11th floor. Stories of how the floods provoked a strong community spirit among Australians have become legendary - and the Irish played their part, too. Bríd Guy saw it first-hand, with volunteers turned away when they showed up in huge numbers to clear out a building across the road from where she lives. “I know people from home who wanted to volunteer but they turned them away because they had so many,†she adds. “Against that, some companies took advantage of the situation as well. Because you can't get fresh bread and vegetables, they were charging really high prices for stuff like that. There was some looting as well, there's a bit of both.†Even candles proved difficult to get. However, mobile phones become more useful than usual. “The lifts didn't work and we had to walk up stairs which were completely pitch dark; the only light we had was from the mobile phones. We got a torch eventually but it was a few days before we did.†The clean-up continues, although the floods have left their mark. “There was a good bit of mud but much of it has been washed away. There is a really bad smell from all the debris and stuff in the floodwater. The streets are very muddy but at the moment, but they're an awful lot better than they were,†she added. Many of the carparks, Bríd said, remained out of use and the authorities were providing free transport on the trains to get people back to work. While her arrival in Brisbane resembled a “nightmareâ€, Bríd Guy and the citizens of the city are hoping for better days - and weather - ahead.