The above image feels somewhat surreal to me. A train station in Melbourne’s inner suburbs, the sunken tracks between its platforms now transformed into a muddy canal. Yesterday and overnight, torrential rain in the wake of tropical cyclones Yasi and Anthony caused flashing flooding in parts of Melbourne and throughout regional Victoria. And there’s more rain on the way. We’re lucky, perched safe and dry in our house on a hill in the suburb of Mount Waverley, but a few nearby friends have had their homes partially flooded.
I shudder to think of the house we were in living in at this time last year, with its backyard that turned into a wading pool after even a modest downpour and the blocked driveway drain that always threatened to spill accumulated rainwater into the garage unless you went out and swept it away with a broom at regular intervals. The garage that would have had all my freshly-relocated husband’s books still stacked in cardboard boxes because we didn’t have room for them inside. We only moved out of that house, and into this one, because it was being demolished.
So, yes, we’re very lucky.
My thoughts and best wishes go out to those who are facing clean-ups and devastation in the wake of the storms that seem to have pummelled just about all of Australia this summer, especially those up in Queensland and down here in Victoria who have borne the brunt of it. It’s been a truly awful start to the year. Here’s hoping it gets better.
If you are able, please consider contributing to the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal and/or the Red Cross Victorian Flood Appeal.
Unless, of course, you’ve already thrown all your spare pennies at Tony Abbott’s campaign against the federal government’s Flood Levy. Nice one, Mr Abbott. Glad to see the Liberal Party has its priorities in order.
Kirstyn McDermott 