MUMS WONDERFUL MEMORY

The great flood of 1893

That was big in Mum’s memory

So much of Brisbane inundated

All the royal streets went under

George Adelaide Elizabeth and Queen

Not to mention the obvious but

Rather blandly named Creek Street

And the khaki coloured river raging on

Sweeping away

Majestic Indooroopilly bridge

And the five thirty ferry capsizing

A worker’s Gladstone bag

Utterly saturated later

Fished from the river down stream 

Delivered right to the front door  

By a complete stranger

But ownerless at seven o’clock

Hours and hours before

The half drowned dishevelled muddy worker

Staggers into the kitchen

Home from work at four am 

Others drowned outright

And not just people

Capsized cows also float

In Mum’s mind down the river

And the wonderful spectacle

She recalled so vividly 

The weather board  Queenslander

Lifted off its high black stumps

To float away down the river

Past the Rocks and on to town

lights inside still burning bright in the night

Time and again she told us about

That great flood of 1893

Never discussed her age (that was unmentionable)

Took me a long time to

Realise she was born

In 1905 but then a wonderful

Memory can be quite creative

I believe                                       

                           Ian Higgins Dec 2012   Note: the survivor  was Lloyd Rees’ father

© Ian Higgins, 2012