Labour shortage will hit rebuilding

The Brisbane River could not be contained and spread out to the suburbs. Photo / AP

You can trace a small cameo of Queensland's catastrophe from the bobcat clearing debris in downtown Brisbane yesterday morning to the caravans and containers jumbled on the banks of the Brisbane River under the Old Treasury Building.

It continues downriver, where Rivercat terminals have been ripped out, to the flooded Suncorp Stadium and nearby Castlemaine Perkins XXXX brewery, the impossibly tangled containers of a freight yard, and the suburb of Rosalie, submerged by the deluge.

Any one of these is a disaster in its own right, and worthy of a story.

But there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of similar cameos, strung together by fate, hydrology and terrain, stretching across three-quarters of the state, from Rockhampton in the north to Goondiwindi in the southwest.

Nor has this been one single agony. There have been weeks of flooding, and, for many, weeks before the dispossessed can return. Between them are broken lines of supply and communications - tens of thousands of kilometres of roads, rail, telecommunications and power lines.

The cost can only be guessed, but it will be astronomical. Most estimates for setting Queensland back in order run at about A$5 billion ($6.4 billion), but the full impost, including wider blows from lost productivity and exports, could be as high as A$16 billion.

And there is the simple question: where will the people with the required skills be found?

Australia was facing a growing shortage of skilled workers well before these floods. The resources boom has been sucking them from anywhere it can, now rebuilding will add to fierce competition, driving up wages.

Surveying the future from Kangaroo Pt as the river continued to pump detritus into Moreton Bay, where it has covered banks and mudflats and posed new threats to shipping, Premier Anna Bligh compared the job ahead to the reconstruction of postwar Europe.

First, there is the care and shelter of the stricken. The state government is already gathering moveable homes, and working to ensure supplies of food, water and fuel, to provide medicines and reopen hospital surgeries, and to prepare for an expected upsurge in disease.

Some towns have already reported E. coli in the floodwaters, and mosquito-borne plagues such as Ross River and dengue fever are likely to increase.

The mess has to be cleared. Many thousands of tonnes of mud have to be moved as the waters recede.

An army of volunteers is being assembled, using their own bobcats, trucks, trailers and sweat.

Brisbane's parks and reserves will become rubbish tips.

Main roads have to be reopened, quickly.

When homes and businesses emerge, each has to be checked by electricians and for structural damage. Raging waters have knocked homes from their foundations and damaged others.

"This is going to be a long, slow recovery," Bligh said, "but we are absolutely up to the task."

Contacts

Donations can be made at any ANZ or National Bank branch to ANZ (NZ) Australian Floods Appeal at account number 01 1839 0224522 00, or online.

Red Cross donations can be made to the Australian Floods Fund at www.redcross.org.nz/donate.

Cheque donations via the Red Cross made payable to New Zealand Red Cross can be sent to Red Cross Flood Response and Recovery Fund, Freepost 232690, PO Box 12140, Thorndon, Wellington 6144.

For consulate help in locating Kiwis in Queensland, call 0800-432-111.

People considering travelling to Queensland should check www.safetravel.govt.nz.