Awe-inspiring sights at Leslie Dam as Warwick battles major flooding

An emergency warning remains for one Southern Downs town battling widespread major flooding, with waters receding across much of the region. All the latest information:

Floodwaters in Warwick are receding as the town avoids a major flooding disaster, with the Condamine River peaking at 6.46m just before 7pm Monday.

The town’s major route avoided a much-feared closure despite the widespread flooding, with OO Madsen Bridge remaining open to traffic as waters lapped below.

At 8.30am Tuesday, the river is falling steadily and sits at 5.46m.

An emergency alert remains for nearby Pratten as widespread flooding continues, with residents warned at 7am to stay up-to-date with the latest information. It is expected the town will reach major flood level of 7.2m and peak near 8m on Tuesday morning.

Southern Downs Regional Council said it will be assessing flood-affected bridges and roads throughout Tuesday and reopening where it is safe.

Warwick and its surrounding towns were braced for flooding to continue into Tuesday after a weekend of intense rain, the resilient and once drought-devastated community says the extra water is not a complete negative.

Leslie Dam was close to an enormous 104 per cent capacity by Monday morning after huge overnight rainfall on Sunday, with a massive release throughout the day dropping its levels to 100.5 per cent by the afternoon.

The crippling drought dried the major Warwick water supplier to just five per cent in December, 2019, and had only reached 12 per cent by this time last year.

Leslie Dam

Lake Leslie Tourist Park owners Adam and Caroline Bennett said the overflowing Leslie Dam with all floodgates open was a sight they were not sure they would ever see, even after it reached capacity at the end of last year.

“It’s awesome, we’ve never seen stuff like this before,” Mr Bennett said.

“I think we saw it at about 80 per cent back in 2012 when we purchased the park, and to see it now at 103 and even 104 per cent, it’s unbelievable and just gorgeous.

“We haven’t seen the dam this full, ever, and we haven’t seen floodgates open like this and all the water everywhere.”

While flash flooding across most routes in and out of Leslie Dam has forced changes to some holiday-makers’ plans, Mr Bennett said there were plenty of people eager to see the captivating sight for themselves.

“There’s a lot of water over the road, but it’s mostly four-wheel drives coming through, so the activity here has been pretty hot today,” he said.

“It’s just fantastic to see the dam levels holding since around December 7 (last year) when they did fill up the first time.”

The huge amount of water at Leslie Dam comes as a major flood warning remained in place for the Condamine River at Warwick and its surrounds on Monday night.

Data from the Bureau of Meteorology indicated the river was at 6.36m and still rising just after 4pm on Monday, while it was expected to near a major flood level of 7m by late Monday evening.

The Condamine River at Warwick is expected to keep rising towards a major flood height by Monday evening, threatening to close OO Madsen Bridge. Picture: WDN

This week’s flood event has been driven by the huge rainfall totals recorded across the region overnight on Sunday, including 66mm at Warwick, 79mm at The Head, 90mm at Queen Mary Falls and 106mm at Spring Creek Rd.

EARLIER:

Southern Downs Regional Council emergency alerts remain in place for Killarney and Allora.

SDRC Local Disaster Management Group co-ordinator Michael Bell said one of the most crucial concerns with the upgraded flood height was the potential impact on major bridges and infrastructure, especially OO Madsen Bridge.

Federation Park has been almost completely swallowed by floodwaters from the Condamine River at Warwick.

“Because the rainfall was so widespread, the Bureau is having to look at different timings and different creeks coming in and how that affects the overall river height,” he said.

“As a general rule, if we know it’s going to hit 7m, we’ll start looking at (OO Madsen) at about 6.6m, because we want to make that call as soon as we can so there aren’t people actually on the bridge being affected.

“The McMahon Bridge (on Victoria St) is generally a bit lower than that.”

Flood map should the Condamine River at Warwick reaches moderate flood level of 6m. Picture: Southern Downs Regional Council

Mr Bell said the council was working with Warwick SES crews to door knock at low-lying properties and businesses to give residents as much time and daylight as they could to prepare for the escalated flood risk.

Warwick SES local controller Matthew Sondergeld said his team had warned businesses on Fitzroy and Albion Sts that their premises could be impacted, and had already evacuated a motorcycle rally currently camping at the Warwick Showgrounds.

A motorist trying to drive through floodwaters on Warwick Allora Rd. Picture: contributed

“We are also expecting the Industrial Estate to be cut off today at some stage, so we have let those businesses know to check the river and keep an eye on the latest updates,” he said.

“It’s not going to go under, but the workers there are going to be trapped for a bit.”

Mr Sondergeld said residents in need would be able to fill sandbags at the SES headquarters on Alice St.

Several major routes have already been cut off by flash flooding, including the Cunningham Highway at the Eight Mile intersection and the New England Highway at both Glengallan and Allora.

The raging floodwaters have seemingly not stopped foolhardy motorists from attempting to follow their usual routes, with residents reporting cars still trying to cross the inundated Warwick Allora Rd and Lyndhurst Lane.