Flooded state tries to learn from disaster

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As large areas of Victoria continue to sink beneath rising floodwaters and the scale of Queensland's catastrophe becomes frighteningly clear, Australia is agonising over its future.

The Queensland floods inundated dozens of towns and vast tracts of farmland, shut down mining and hundreds of businesses, left thousands homeless and continue to affect about two million people.

The Victorian deluge, which added the river city of Echuca to its list of victims on Sunday and late yesterday threatened the Wimmera centre of Horsham, followed years of drought and a summer locust plague.

About 500 homes in Echuca were expected to be affected by what officials described as a "one-in-200-years" flood.

The floods have hit national and state economies, absorbed massive resources, and are expected to force up costs and wages as Australia - already facing a skills shortage - struggles to find the tradespeople needed for a multibillion-dollar reconstruction.

The human agony continues to mount. The discovery of another man in a pile of debris in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, and confirmation that an earlier death was caused by the deluge, has taken the death toll from the floods that raged down from the Toowoomba Range last week to 20. More than 10 people remain missing. In Victoria, a 7-year-old boy disappeared yesterday while swimming in a swollen billabong at Kialla, near Shepparton.

Thousands of homes and businesses will be either under water or uninhabitable for weeks.

In Brisbane, where 11,900 homes and 2500 businesses were inundated, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said the state faced a huge job relocating many people who would be homeless for months.

"We are currently looking at how we can provide temporary accommodation," she told ABC radio. "It may be necessary in some places to have, effectively, a temporary work-camp set up."

Bligh has emerged well from her handling of the crisis, reversing rock-bottom popularity and reviving the state government's hopes of surviving what most analysts considered was certain defeat in this year's election. Adding to praise from other leaders and a huge anecdotal swing in support from voters, state Opposition leader John-Paul Lanbroek yesterday said he gave Bligh a "big tick".

But the strength of the swing has yet to be tested as Queensland begins its clean-up, and business began to recover in Brisbane's previously deserted CBD.

Bligh announced a commission of inquiry into the floods after a special meeting of the state Cabinet yesterday, to be led by Court of Appeal Judge Catherine Holmes and lasting 12 months with an initial A$15 million ($18.4 million) budget.

She had said earlier that the Government would consider proposals such as levees and rezoning land along the Brisbane River - where many properties were submerged - after criticism of land planning decisions that had allowed, or even encouraged, developments in flood-prone areas.

Changes may also be forced on the insurance industry, whose polices range from a blunt refusal to cover flood to disputed definitions of disaster.

The Australian reported that some insurers were insisting no clean-up work begin until inundated properties had been inspected by their agents.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan said he and other senior ministers last week met the industry to discuss issues such as the definition of flood, differing degrees of cover and the provision of dispute resolution, possibly including access to legal advice. "It is very important ... that where there is a doubt about the policy that the customer gets the benefit of the doubt and is treated with a degree of compassion."

The emergency continues in Victoria, where more than 3500 people have left their homes or been evacuated ahead of floodwaters that have inundated at least 1400 properties.

As further towns faced rising waters yesterday, the Bureau of Meteorology said rainfall had broken records in many areas, including some that had already received 10 times their average January rainfall.

New Liberal Premier Ted Bailleau added to warnings of the huge cost of reconstruction after visiting flooded homes.

The scale of the suffering has blocked political criticism of federal and state government handling of the crisis, although Greens leader Bob Brown was attacked yesterday for blaming the floods on climate change and coal miners. He said miners should meet the repair bill.