Brisbane storm: Campbell Newman blasts weather bureau warnings

Brisbane’s swift and severe storm was welcomed for the massive amount of rain it brought, but Campbell Newman was left seething for other reasons.

SOUTHEAST Queensland has spent months waiting for rain – and when it finally came Wednesday night it was one for the record books.

Brisbane city received a record 130.4mm of rain – the most in a December day since 1956 – with the Bureau of Meteorology reporting that 112mm was received in just one hour. The downfall was the equivalent of six months’ average rainfall.

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But it did little to lift dam levels, and almost nothing to break the state’s worsening drought.

While the tough times are far from over, 9Dorf Farms owner Brenton Neuendorf said Wednesday’s rainfall had made a late-summer crop possible at his Flagstone Creek farm.

“We got about 70mm here which has put moisture into the ground for a late summer crop,” he said.

“It’s really good to see some rain, now we just need some more”.

With his nieces Evelyn and Charlotte Gibson celebrating in the mud, Mr Neuendorf said that the rain would ease some pressure.

“We are relying heavily on our other means of income, we’re only using 10 per cent of the water we usually would so some more rain would be nice,” he said.

Evelyn and Charlotte Gibson at Flagstone Creek

One man who was less pleased about the storm was former premier Campbell Newman, who slammed the weather bureau saying its forecasts and storm warnings were unacceptable.

Mr Newman vented his frustration that BoM officials had told a meeting of state and federal ministers there would be no significant rain until at least April.

He said the organisation needed to do better and storm warnings issued in the lead up to Wednesday’s hour-long deluge had been insufficient.

“They’ve got a huge budget, they’ve got lots of experts, they’ve got supercomputing and yet they don’t seem to do a very good job.”

Mr Newman said warnings should have been issued an “hour beforehand, not 15 minutes beforehand”.

“If I was a politician still, I’d be taking their advice with a grain of salt and when I was premier … we were concerned about the quality of the advice we were getting,” he said.

“They did not warn in a clear, timely fashion that there was going to be a severe thunderstorm last night.”

The Bureau of Meteorology told The Courier-Mail it stood by the accuracy and timing of the severe thunderstorm warnings issued for Queensland on Wednesday.

“The bureau’s team of forecasters kept track of the changes and responded appropriately with timely warnings issued on social media and on the bureau’s website,” a spokesman said.

Brisbane, SE Qld and northern NSW being lashed by storm. Meantime BOM advised Govt there would be no rain till April and even now weather app says "possible storm". They need to do better

— Campbell Newman (@CampbellNewman) December 11, 2019

The Bureau said the rainfall outlook for January to April shows “drier than average conditions are likely for eastern Australia”.

“While the likelihood for widespread drought-breaking rain within this period for the east is low, this does not mean that significant localised rainfall will not occur during this period,” the spokesman said.

Wednesday’s wild weather dropped hail across Warwick and Applethorpe on the ­Darling Downs and caused flash flooding in some parts of Brisbane.

The SES received more than 125 claims for motor and property damage and QFES was called on for nine swift-water rescues.

Seqwater said dams remained largely unaffected, with SEQ’s Water Grid supply size not stirring from 57.9 per cent.

“Since the soil in our drinking water catchments had become so dry, a lot more continuous rain is needed to saturate the ground before we begin to see significant inflow into our dams,” spokesman Mike Foster said.

Meanwhile, the bureau has warned of the potential for more severe thunderstorms, high winds, heavy rainfall and hail today.

Former premier Campbell Newman with wife Lisa