Operation Clean Up done and dusted

The Gold Coast’s mammoth storm clean-up has finally come to an end after two months following the Christmas and New Year’s severe weather events.

Mayor Tom Tate announced the end of Operation Clean Up on Friday morning, after more than 77,000 truckloads of waste were removed from thousands of streets across the Gold Coast since Christmas Day.

Mr Tate said council crews diverted from their regular jobs to help with Operation Clean Up have been told to return to their regular occupations.

“The Christmas Day storm left unprecedented destruction through the northern part of the Gold Coast and a huge clean-up project in its wake,” Mr Tate said.

“The green waste collected has been mulched. About 320 cubic metres of mulch was given away to 346 residents, the remaining mulch will be used on public gardens across the city.”

More than 1673 streets were targeted by Operation Clean Up’s kerbside collection services, with 860km of roadway driven.

Overall, 46,170 tonnes of debris was collected across the city following the Christmas Day cyclonic storm and subsequent flooding.

Mr Tate took aim at the Bureau of Meteorology’s forecasting and recommended they start using different tools to predict the weather.

“I would probably have asked the army to come probably a week earlier,” he said. “The second thing I think, the Bureau of Meteorology has got to look at other modelling predictions.

“That’s federal government and they can say it’s difficult but the US got this software called Dubla and they should put that on the test and see if it’s more accurate or give us earlier warning.

“They should do their homework on that one.”