Toombul shopping centre floods: Retailers still struggling one year on

The devastation continues for former Toombul Shopping Centre retailers a year after floods wiped the site out, with one still homeless and another seething over the decision to close the centre permanently.

• Photos: Inside devastated centre

A former Toombul Shopping Centre retailer is still homeless and battling to get back on his feet more than a year on from the devastating 2022 floods.

Jim Demetrios was among dozens of small business owners left shattered by Toombul owner Mirvac’s controversial decision to shut the centre permanently after it was badly flooded.

The former Hairhouse Warehouse franchisee said while he had used money given to him by Mirvac to start a new hairdressing business at Nundah, he was still living with friends and struggling with mental and financial scars.

“I’m not half the person I was – this is really hard,” he told The Sunday Mail for a new documentary miniseries, Courage Under Water, which will launch on Monday to mark the one-year anniversary of the catastrophic floods.

Flooding at Toombul shopping centre in 2022. Photo: Aaron Symonds

“This is by far the worst experience I’ve ever had. I’m still trying my hardest but it’s very difficult.

“But you know, life deals you these things and you just have to carry on. I mean, what choice do I have?”

Mr Demetrios was in business at Toombul “an unlucky 13 years” and while he had been through other floods, “this was by far the worst”.

He said he knew it was going to be bad when clients started ringing to say they couldn’t make their appointments due to closed roads.

He said the ceiling caved in and there was “water just coming from everywhere … there was so much rain”.

“My recollection of it is, this is not going to let up,” he said.

“The whole back car park was flooded – I’ve never seen anything like it, it was incredible.”

Mr Demetrios said it was weeks before Mirvac allowed him and other retailers back into the centre under escort.

Jim Demetrios pictured outside the former Toombul Shopping centre which has now been closed for 12 months. Picture David Clark

“When I walked in, I couldn’t believe my eyes – it was like a tsunami had come through the place. It was pretty devastating,” he said.

“I’d overcome a few ups and downs to get to this point. We got through Covid and just when we were looking better, this goes and happens. I’ve pretty much lost everything.”

Mr Demetrios said he had emailed Mirvac managing director Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz personally pleading for more support, but was yet to receive a reply.

Shane Griffin, who lost his newsagency business of 28 years when Toombul closed, said he and other retailers had been treated “appallingly” by Mirvac which has announced plans to redevelop the centre.

He said about 30 staff had lost their jobs after he was told by email that the business in which he and his 78-year-old mother had invested “millions” was “finished”.

“It was quite horrendous – dehumanising, I think, is the best way to describe it, the way we were treated. It was just atrocious,” he said.

“They couldn’t have made it more difficult if they’d really tried. The whole approach was totally woeful.

“We found out three months later by email that our businesses were finished. A 28-year experience, a multi, multi million dollar investment, gone in a letter.

“I still get calls from other retailers, still distraught to this day.”

The devastation left in the wake of last year’s floods at Toombul shopping centre. Pics: Supplied

Aftermath of the Toombul shopping centre flooding.

Mr Griffin and Mr Demetrios both believe Toombul could have been salvaged.

“A hundred per cent it could have been salvaged,” Mr Griffin said.

“It was in their (Mirvac’s) benefit not to. Their benefit is financial to them and of course, that ruined a lot of families, it ruined a lot of people.”

Mr Demetrios said he drove past the shuttered and fenced-off centre daily.

“I just think, wow … like it’s still here, it’s still standing.

“It just seems like it’s sitting here going to waste.”

COURAGE UNDER WATER: THE DOCUMENTARY

A new two-part video documentary produced by The Courier-Mail takes an incredible look back at the heroes and survivors of the 2022 floods that devastated South East Queensland.

Journalists Greg Stolz and Taylah Fellows, and News Corp videographer Ankit Mishra, spent a week interviewing people hardest hit in February last year.

The documentary, titled Courage Under Water, captures the human stories of the floods – the heroes that emerged, the incredible rescues and the enduring mental scars left behind.

In episode one, Auchenflower couple Lana and Nick Hill describe the fear of trying to escape rising flood waters with a two-month-old baby, while hairdresser and former Toombul Shopping Centre retailer Jim Demetrios reveals he’s still struggling to recover 12 months on.

Queensland insurer Suncorp, which has sponsored the video series, received more than 28,000 claims from Maryborough to Burleigh Heads as the already-soaked South East region was inundated with water last summer.

Since then, the Queensland insurer has partnered with the state and federal governments on the $741 million Resilient Homes Fund program to help homeowners incorporate flood resilient design and materials in their homes, or to raise or buy back their homes.

Episode one of Courage Under Water will be available on couriermail.com.au from Monday, March 6. Episode 2 will be released on March 13.