Australia: Residents braced as torrential floods head for Brisbane

Residents in Australia's third largest city, Brisbane, sandbagged their homes against rising waters yesterday as torrential rain worsened floods that have paralysed the coal industry in the north-east and now threaten tourism.

The worst floods in 50 years have at times covered an area the size of France and Germany combined in Queensland state.

Eight people are known to have been killed and 11 are missing, while dozens of towns have been partially submerged or cut off altogether. More monsoon rains are expected all week.

"People need to think about how to get out, and if you don't need to travel, stay off the roads," said Police Chief Superintendent Alistair Dawson, referring to some of the smaller towns near Brisbane, the state capital.

Toowoomba, a major rural city west of Brisbane, was hit by a two-metre-deep wall of mud-filled floodwater which swept two people to their deaths and left others clinging to the tops of vehicles carried along streets by the torrent, police said.

Local resident Sarah Gordon said she saw at least 15 cars washed away in the flash flood.

"A lot of cars got swept down the road … right down the creek.

"A few people were trapped, but they luckily got out."

State premier Anna Bligh said: "Mother Nature has unleashed something shocking on Too-woomba."

In Brisbane, a city of two million people, residents in low-lying areas were given sandbags and warned that the worst of the flooding might not occur until today or Wednesday.

Police urged motorists to stay off the roads in the state's heavily populated southeast, home to the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast areas, Australia's premier tourism destinations.

Queensland Tourism said rains and flooding would hurt the industry, but it was too early to quantify the impact.

The country's A$32 billion (20bn) tourism sector was already in trouble as the strength of the local currency has driven off overseas visitors and enticed Australians to go abroad.

The floods have caused an estimated A$6bn in damage and economists say they will cut economic growth in 2011 and heighten inflation as food prices rise and reconstruction begins.

Yesterday Prime Minister Julia Gillard said: "I can't at this stage tell people what the total cost of recovering from these floods is going to be, because I can't predict the draw-down on infrastructure money until we see what's under the floodwaters."

In the north of Queensland, floodwaters containing toxic farm pesticides were flowing into the Pacific Ocean, threatening the Great Barrier Reef, marine park officials and wildlife experts said.

Nick Heath, a spokesman for wildlife group WWF, said: "Toxic pollution from flooded farms and towns along the Queensland coast will have a disastrous impact on the Great Barrier Reef's corals and will likely have a significant impact on dugongs, turtles and other marine life."

The flood warning is expected to be extended to towns in neighbouring New South Wales.

A major concern now is the ground, which is so waterlogged that heavy rains cannot be absorbed. Full rivers, creeks and man-made watercourses were bursting their banks.

Floods have also paralysed production of 35 per cent of Australia's estimated 259 million tonnes of exportable coal. Australia contributes two-thirds of global coking coal exports, needed to make steel.