Where is climate change when we really need it?

WHAT is going on with this weather?

What happened to the global warming and/or climate change we’ve been lectured about?

I remember being told some years back that we’d never again see enough rain to fill our dams, creeks and rivers in the future and that drought would be pretty much permanent for the Australia of the future.

Well, it seems our dams are full to the point Wivenhoe had water let go during the week and going by the “squishy” sound underfoot as I walk to work, I’d say the ground is pretty much saturated so the underground water table must be at a healthy level.

Though born and bred in North Queensland, I’ve been in Toowoomba for almost 50 years now (just another five years and I’ll be considered a local) and I’ve never seen a year as wet as this.

I’m glad I’m not riding my Malvern Star pushy along West Street to school these days.

One can’t help but feel for the residents of the Lockyer Valley, in particular Grantham, who have seen so many floods of late they must be looking for a white bearded bloke who goes by the name of Noah.

And, as soon as I can find out what a “cubit” is, I’ll be looking to build an ark myself, I’ve certainly got enough animals hanging around my place in the ghetto to fill the boat with cats, dogs, magpies, crows, possums, chooks, cockroaches and the occasional wallaby showing up in my yard of late.

Just this week, there were suggestions that Toowoomba could host some equestrian events during the 2032 Olympic Games but if this weather keeps up I reckon we might be able to secure the kayaking events as well.

Gowrie Creek in flood – as it has been regularly this year – would prove a challenging course for Olympic kayakers, particularly when trying to negotiate the rapids as they pound down under the Russell Street bridge before weaving through the overgrown weeds and discarded shopping trolleys in the waterways behind Chalk Drive.

Can you imagine the surprise of kayakers on a swollen and fast moving Gowrie Creek suddenly finding themselves taken by the flood waters into Rowes Furniture Store or across Russell Street into the National Hotel which has gone under a few times already this year?

It would make the kayaking that little bit extra spectacular – and a worldwide advertising boon for the Russell Street stores.

As anyone who has walked the Bell Street Mall during these recent wet days would attest it’s become a wind tunnel through there.

After losing two umbrellas to the elements, both of which were turned inside out and had the metal arms bent out of alignment, I was forced to acquire a more sturdy model of protection from the wind and rain as I negotiated the Bell Street Mall.

Unfortunately, though I acquired a far better umbrella which didn’t bend in the weather, it was so strong that I was lifted off the ground and ended up landing near West Street.

As I was whisked away by the winds above the rooftops of the CBD I couldn’t help but hear some pedestrians on the ground looking up and remarking: “Boy, hasn’t Mary Poppins porked up?”

However, there is a serious side to this weather event and one can’t help but feel for the homeless and those living in cars in the Toowoomba region at the moment.

Just this week, a colleague arrived at work here at The Chronicle to find a man asleep on the steps of the business.

Why can’t the state government fork out some dollars and hire out the Wellcamp Hub for these people – it’s not as if it’s being used for Covid isolators for which it was originally built?

If this weather continues to flood out the ghetto, I might look at moving out to Wellcamp myself.

I reckon we might be able to secure the kayaking events as well.