The '74 flood photos resurrected a few memories.

On the Saturday morning (pre-dawn) of the commencement of the 1974 floods my mother was proceeding to a rendezvous with Ms Toogood (I kid you not), the founder and head of the Ecumenical Coffee Brigade (a charity organisation which still operates to this day and supplies coffee and sandwiches to the underprivileged throughout central Brisbane).

In those days we lived in The Gap — Moggill Road off Payne Road. The roads were dirt and there was no street lighting. My mother proceeded down the hill from the intersection of Moggill and Payne towards the intersection with School and Payne Roads. And the headlights did not identify anything out of the ordinary.

 Unfortunately the creek had flooded across Payne Road (excuse — brown dirt road — brown flood waters looked the same in the pre-dawn light). The Holden station wagon ploughed into the brown water and stalled.

My mother returned home and raised the family. My father and I went down on the family tractor to recover the vehicle. Unfortunately the creek had risen and the car was now floating gently away. A rope was tied to the rear of the vehicle and we (the family and neighbours by this stage) tried to rescue the car. The flood waters were rising quickly and we couldn't get the tractor close enough to the car nor could we pull the car from the clutches of the floodwaters.

Solution — we tied the car to a telephone pole and watched in awe as it gently undulated in the flooding creek. Needless to say the car was never the same. And although the underprivileged did not get their sandwiches that morning  (the sandwiches were a wee bit damp to say the least — handmade by all members of the Family the previous night), Ms Toogood did sally forth (on her own) and delivered coffee to those she could find in the inner city.

Ms Toogood has since passed away but my Mother is still an active member of the still very functional Ecumenical Coffee Brigade. And she (Adelle Kaye) was awarded an OAM, in the recent past, for her services to the community of Brisbane.

Paul Kaye
New Farm