Some normality returns after record floods

16 March 2010

Wading in ... principal Ben Austen outside Bollon State School

Queensland schools affected by floods described in some areas as the worst on record have begun to return to normal.

Only Thallon State School remained closed on Tuesday, March 16. Bollon reopened last Thursday, while Thargomindah reopened on Friday after three days closed.

Peek-A-Doo, Charleville and Eromanga State Schools were the first schools to be closed on March 5, but all were able to reopen on March 8.

Bollon was closed for four days and principal Ben Austen said the receding floodwaters had left a new problem, mosquitoes and sandflies.

'There is still a lot of water lying around so the problem is likely to continue for a couple of weeks at least,' he said.

'This flood was a record flood in Bollon of 1.75m. The previous record height was 1.53m in 1983.

'The school is usually not affected by floodwaters. In this flood, the entire school grounds were covered with up to half a metre of floodwater.'

Mr Austen said it was fortunate none of the classroom buildings had water through them, but the tuckshop was badly damaged and several storage sheds were flooded.

'We lost an entire week of school, with no children able to turn out on the Thursday the waters arrived,' he said.

'It would have been longer had we not had amazing community support in cleaning up the flood mess. Bollon is a small town with a tight community that worked together amazingly to help each other.

'There was literally a taskforce going from place to place. They went to the service station across the road on Thursday morning and came here after that, we had about a dozen people who worked from mid-morning to mid-afternoon putting things right.'

Thargomindah principal Stuart Bell said assistance from Boulia Shire Council had helped the school brace for inundation, with a crew helping sandbag buildings, lifting electrical equipment onto benches and moving resource materials upstairs.

Department of Education and Training regional director Greg Dickman praised the tremendous support and co-ordination of Darling Downs-South West Queensland region Roma office staff, executive director schools Judy Menary and QBuild.

As of yesterday, the situation at Dirranbandi and Hebel State Schools continued to be monitored by the department.

Thallon State School remained closed due to water inundation and limited or no access to the school site.

The department continued to advise staff and parents needing to send their children to schools in flood-affected areas to exercise extreme caution and closely monitor road conditions.