Goomeri after the January 2022 floods | Photos

New photos of a flood ravaged rural Gympie region town have revealed the devastating impact more than a month after the January 2022 floods. SEE THE PICTURES:

Jennifer Jackson, who lives on the doorstep of the destroyed Maudsley St, recounted the morning she woke up to find half of her street had been washed away. Photo: Elizabeth Neil

New photos of flood ravaged Goomeri have revealed the devastating impact on the town more than a month after the January 2022 floods.

It comes as Goomeri residents told The Gympie Times on Tuesday the clean-up effort was swift, with most of the damage already repaired, but one street still resembling something from a disaster movie.

The bitumen road in Maudsley St, which runs parallel to Moore St in Goomeri and backs on to businesses such as the Goomeri Bakery, crumbled away under the intense flooding.

What is left of Maudsley Street in Goomeri a month after the floods. Photo: Elizabeth Neil

Jennifer Jackson, who lives on the doorstep of the destroyed road, recounted the morning she woke up to find half of her street had been washed away.

“I said to my partner ‘do you hear that? It sounds like a river’, and it just rose so quickly,” she said.

“It was terrifying to wake up to.”

Ms Jackson said the water quickly rose to about 2m, washing out her neighbours’ home and threatening the structure of her highset Queenslander when an industrial bin floated downstream.

Then, the unthinkable happened as the road in front of Ms Jackson’s home gave way.

“I heard a crash, and I just said to my partner ‘there’s this huge divvet in the road’, because all this water was going into this hole,” she said.

Jennifer Jackson said she was frustrated over the fact the road had still not been repaired, weeks after the floods. Photo: Elizabeth Neil

But as time went on and the water dried up, the reality of the situation was more dire than first thought, as the town’s main water supply, which ran under the bitumen, was badly damaged.

Ms Jackson said as a result, 85 per cent of the town lost access to water.

The issue was rectified within a week, according to Ms Jackson, who went and stayed with her parents in Nanango for a week and a half.

“It’s definitely a scare, it makes you realise how dangerous flood water actually is,” she said.

Now, more than a month later, Ms Jackson said the council was yet to repair the road, which gives her neighbours limited access to their driveway, and forces her to squeeze past a coffee shop next door to get on to Moore St.

In other parts of the region, Tansey resident Jeff Carpenter told The Gympie Times on Tuesday the Tansey Bowls Club had nine inches (23cm) of mud built up on the green, and a metre of water had flooded the clubhouse itself.

Tansey resident Jeff Carpenter said he was unaffected by the floods, but the Tansey bowls club nearby needed to be gutted and refurbished.

As a result, Mr Carpenter said the interior of the clubhouse was destroyed and had to be torn down and refurbished.

In the weeks that followed, more than $50,000 was raised and donated to the Tansey Bowls Club flood appeal.

“Just locally, we raised $13,000,” Mr Carpenter said.

“There was another $14,000 on top of that from different donors and different bowls clubs, and then the local RSL in Murgon gifted the club $30,000.”

Goomeri resident Penny Ruthenberg, who was in isolation at the time of the floods, said she was alerted to the floods by her neighbour who urged her to look out her window.

Goomeri resident Penny Ruthenberg said the flood water was 6m from her front door.

She said the flood water was 6m from her front door.

“I was a bit shocked by the volume of water, and you could hear it, it was like rumbling, thrashing,” she said.

But despite this, Ms Ruthenberg’s home was unaffected.

“I just had a little leak down the chimney, it was pretty okay,” she said.

More than 650mm of rain was dumped across the Wide Bay region during the 2022 January floods.

Originally published as Goomeri after the January 2022 floods | Photos