In October 1976, the Queanbeyan Age reported on widespread flooding throughout the city for the second time in two years.
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At the time, SES director Max Morton said the situation was “no-where near the situation we had in 1974”. He said the flood level was 15cm lower than the level two years earlier.
“There was a feeling of stoic determination in the town to which [mayor] Alderman Land added some light relief with his comment, ‘A higher authority considered we weren’t such a sin-city after all’,” a Queanbeyan Age reporter wrote.
The damage bill was $115,808, the paper reported, and the flood appeal at the time raised about $2100. (According to the RBA inflation calculator, in today’s dollars the damage bill would have been close to $700,000, with the flood appeal bringing in about $12,000.)
Days later, the Age reported on the clean-up efforts.
“Beside the winding river, residents were shovelling and hosing thick mud from in and around their homes,” the newspaper report reads.
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