Wednesday 23 February
6am – The Bureau of Meteorology issues a flood watch on the Mary River, after it rises 6m in 6 hours.
7am – Residents in a low lying gully in Goomboorian are evacuated by flood boat.
7.30am – Queensland Police begin a land, water and air search after a motorcycle is discovered in flood waters at Cedar Pocket Road.
10.42am – Police confirm the body of 63 year old Belli Park woman Philippa Tayler was found in her submerged SUV at around 9am that morning. It’s believed her Honda CRV became stuck in floodwaters at Skyring Creek around 4.45am but rescuers were unable to locate her in time because of the excessive flooding in the area.
Thursday 24 February
6.52am – The Mary River reaches the first moderate peak of 13.06m before starting to fall slightly an hour later.
3.49pm – QPS announce that 54-year-old Cedar Pocket man, Phil Lambert has been located deceased and identify him as the missing motorcyclist from Wednesday morning.
Friday 25 February
6.35am – The Mary River drops to it’s lowest point of 11.21m since it started to rise at 12am Wednesday, but by 7am it has started to rise again.
8.15am – The BOM announces that the Mary is likely to flood to Major levels of more than 17m.
9am – Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig holds a press conference and advises people in low lying residences and businesses to prepare to evacuate.
12pm – The BOM predicts flooding levels could exceed those of 1999 at 21.95m.
12pm- The RACQ Lifeflight helicopter rescues five people and a dog from a low lying Cedar Creek property and moves them to higher ground.
2.30pm – Gympie Regional Council closes Normanby and Pengellys’ Bridges and both are soon under flood water as is a large section of the Bruce Highway at Kybong.
2.41pm – The lowest lying business on Mary St (the basement at Wayne’s World) begins to flood when the river height reaches 15m.
Saturday 26 February
3.56am – Flood levels reach 20m and there is already 1.6m of water inside the Royal Hotel.
8am – A tenant in Mary Street is rescued from his flooding rental by the QPS Flood boat and a good samaritan in a kayak.
11am – QPS announce they are searching for a man whose vehicle is believed to have been swept away in flood waters near Goomboorian around 10pm the night before.
1pm – The BOM confirms the river will peak higher than the 1999 flood height of 21.95m.
1.15pm – The RACQ Lifeflight Helicopter rescues three people and three dogs from a flooding residence at Kybong.
1.20pm – The State and Federal Governments officially declare Gympie a disaster zone with the announcement of Disaster Relief Payments.
3pm – GRC advises residents in low lying areas to evacuate immediately.
3.20pm – QPS searchers find the body of missing 37 year old Goomboorian man Phil Sugg.
Approx 6pm – 14,000 residents from Southside to Mothar Mountain lose power and most remain blacked out until Monday afternoon.
Sunday 27 February
3.55am – The Mary River peaks at 22.96m before starting to recede roughly 3 hours later.
11am – GRC announce urgent water restrictions after it is revealed flood waters have cut electricity to the Water Treatment Plant.
Monday 28 February
6am – The clean up begins in earnest as water levels slowly begin to recede and Ted Uebergang and his team from the Veteran Rural Fire Service take point on the clean up and establish a command centre just off Nash Street behind the former Surface Hill Church with 45 personnel and 16 trucks.
6am – Mary Street businesses start to take stock of the devastation.
12pm – Personnel from 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment roll into Gympie, and begin undertaking recovery efforts and camping out at the Gympie Showgrounds Pavilion.
1.30pm – Power is restored to most of Southside and, 2 hours later, the Water Treatment Plant, however isolated pockets of the region remain cut off from electricity.
3.57pm – Bruce Highway between Traveston and Brisbane reopens for priority travel but Gympie remains cut off from the Bruce Highway and Southside.
Approx 6pm – A Communications on Wheels unit (COW for short) is brought in to restore mobile phone coverage for the Government Wireless Network’s secure emergency services comms.
8pm – Photos of extensive damage to Bells Bridge begin to circulate on social media, as the water recedes enough to reveal it.
Tuesday 1 March
6am – The number of helpers for the Veteran RFS climbs to 58 personnel and 24 trucks and the group move down to Jaycee Way for their command centre to continue their clean up.
10.30am – Normanby Bridge reopens and immediately becomes a parking lot as the number of vehicles attempting to cross the river escalates and slows traffic down to a crawl.
2.30pm – TMR confirms the Bruce Highway south of Gympie is open all the way to Brisbane, however traffic to the north may still be impacted by partial lane closures and detours.
4.30pm – Energex shares a tweet of a now iconic image of a quad bike caught up on powerlines in Phoenix Street at One Mile, showing the world just how high the waters were in the region. Many believe the picture to be a hoax, but close examination of peak flood aerial shots of that area clearly show the bike floating, but tangled in the lines.
Wednesday 2 March
6am – The State Government announces all schools will be closed except to children of essential workers as storms continue to threaten the lower SE corner of the state.
6am – The number of RFS volunteers assisting private citizens, the council and members of the ADF to help with business and household cleanup sits at 43 people and 20 trucks, completing the 128 jobs they had logged since Monday.
Thursday 3 March
6am – 97 volunteers and 32 trucks turn up at the temporary command centre for the RFS at the Jaycee Way. The Caloundra ICC offers the use of the Regional Operation Centre (ROC) which is brought up to Gympie and set up temporarily at the Jaycee Way compound along with staff to run the comms centre.
Approx Midday – Kidd Bridge finally emerges from the water, more than a week after it first submerged.
Around 2pm – the ADF and other emergency services request the RFS centralise operations with them at the Pavilion on Southside, however, to minimise disruption to the clean-up crews already tasked to jobs around the region, the decision is made to relocate first thing Friday morning.
Friday 4 March
6am – Ted Uebergang and his team from RFS relocate the ROC to the Pavilion and 123 personnel and 41 trucks report for duty and with the assistance of disaster management experts from Townsville, North Maroochy and Maryborough and the SES crews from across the South East continue the monumental clean-up.
