Toowoomba entrepreneur and rich list stalwart Clive Berghofer says he has never seen anything like the floods that hit the town yesterday in his 75 years living in Toowoomba, and says the disaster has left the state of Queensland in a “bloody mess”.
Berghofer, whose fortune was estimated at $340 million by BRW magazine in May 2010, has built an empire on extensive property holdings in Toowoomba.
However, he told SmartCompany that damage to his properties has been minimal, although “a few of my subdivisions have been washed away”.
Berghofer’s greater concern is for the town for which he once served as mayor. He says the town’s key infrastructure was decimated by the wall of water that swept through the centre of the city on the afternoon of January 10.
“I’ve never seen water like it in my life,” he says. “I’m 75 and I have been here all my life. It was washing cars away. There were containers floating down the river and pellets everywhere.”
“What’s it’s done to bridges, and railway lines and buildings is just amazing. We thought we were pretty safe here on top of the Range. “
Berghofer, who has spent some time surveying the damage around the city, says three bridges joining the eastern side of the city to the western side appear to have been at least partially destroyed, while the city’s key links to Brisbane – the Range Highway and railway line – is believed to have been washed away.
“It would be six months or 12 months before they can be rebuilt. Just getting a workforce will be difficult,” he says.
Berghofer says most of his staff are currently on holidays, but expects it will be some time before his workers can start to assess and repair the damage at his sub division developments.
Like most areas of Toowoomba, Berghofer says one big problem is that the area has received so much rain that any further wet weather will get the water running together again.
And while yesterday’s floods were caused by a freak set of circumstances, Berghofer says the town was already soaked – last year he lost four months of work to wet weather.
“For the last three months we’ve had pretty continuous sort of rain. It only takes a few millimetres of rain to get the water running.”
Berghofer is also worried about the impact of flooding around Queensland and says the rains have stopped the key cattle and coal industries in their tracks.
“The whole of Queensland is in a bloody mess. There are so many people not working because of the weather.”
He is also watching the flood situation in Brisbane carefully.
“I’ve got a building in Brisbane I am a bit worried about.”
Berghofer admits it is “a bit depressing” seeing what has happened to his hometown, but is hopefully Toowoomba can bounce back.
“It’s one of things that you’ve got to grin and bear it. We’ll bounce back. We’re a pretty vibrant sort of city.”
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
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