Dual weather disasters, including floods and Tropical Cyclone Jasper, have seen 100 Queensland state schools damaged, with authorities racing to repair facilities in time for the return to term one on 22 January.
Two Gold Coast schools are among the casualties, with serious damage caused by a tree crashing into a classroom at Helensvale State School. Helensvale is one of the two hardest hit schools in Queensland, with a tree also damaging a two-space prep building at Coomera State School.
The state’s Education Minister Di Farmer confirmed 96 state schools had been damaged across south-east and far north Queensland. The tally includes 35 damaged schools in the south-east, with 61 in the far north requiring a clean-up. The scale of repairs required before students and teachers can return to classrooms for the new school year ranges from basic flood clean-ups to long-term rebuilding of sections of buildings.
The state government says it aims to have every single school ready for the return of students in less than a fortnight, but some classrooms and other facilities will be out of commission.
At schools in Wynnum and Manly, where the roof was ripped off, demountable classrooms will offer temporary facilities.
Flooded town is inundated again
In Victoria, heavy rains caused flooding that impacted several regions with flood threat warnings put in place for many towns along the Goulburn River, including Murchison, Shepparton and Echuca.
Clean-up operations are underway in the Victorian town of Rochester, where families who are still without homes since catastrophic floods in late 2022 caused about $250 million in damage have been impacted again.
For principal of the town’s St Joseph’s Primary School, Elizabeth Trewick, the latest water damage has caused frustration and stress – as well as questions about the flood mitigation work done in the time between the two major floods.
“Why wasn’t something done? Everyone knew we would flood again, but we did not think this sort of risk would happen in 15 months.”
