Home / Series / ABC Documentaries / Aired Order / Season 2011 / Episode 18

After the Deluge

A one-hour documentary on the flash flooding that decimated the Lockyer Valley on Monday January 10 and its aftermath. Seasoned and young ABC reporters who covered the stories from the flood revisit the ravaged areas to see how communities are faring after the disaster. Detailing the constant rain over the preceding months, the film will touch on the extraordinary events in Toowoomba and the combination of planning, luck, and timing that saw Paul Lockyer and ABC crew Gary Ticehurst and Berger Breland land in the devastated Lockyer Valley town of Grantham the day after an inland tsunami destroyed it - and 24 hours before other media. Reeling with the horror at the stories of death and destruction they gathered the townspeople, and joined by other ABC staff, they spent two days documenting Grantham's fate in words and pictures and also the efforts to find survivors and catalogue the dead. The experience, even for seasoned journalists, was shocking and unforgettable. ABC colleague Kirrin McKechnie covers the early return of people to Grantham and the Lockyer Valley. Two weeks after the town was washed away, McKechnie found people still traumatised. "It was like the whole town had been put through a shredder," she said. Combining the personal stories of the ABC journalists and the amazing tales of survival, with previously unseen footage of water engulfing Grantham, this film is a compelling record of an event unparalleled in Australian history.

English
  • Originally Aired March 1, 2011
  • Runtime 60 minutes
  • Network ABC (AU)
  • Created August 20, 2013 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified August 20, 2013 by
    Administrator admin