This post has been put together more with my international audience in mind that those here in Australia, who are very much aware of the ongoing situation here.

Queensland, Australia is currently struggling to recover from a natural disaster of epic proportions that saw up to 80% of the state underwater at some stage over the past two weeks. To put that into perspective, 80% of Queensland equates to an area twice the size of Texas (largest state in the US), an area larger than France & Germany combined, or an area 6 times the size of the UK!

Through the crisis, 16 people are confirmed to have lost their lives, with over 20 people still missing. On top of this, tens of thousands of people have had their homes & businesses completely destroyed.

The flooding has affected regional Queensland as well as major urban centers such as my home city, Brisbane, with a population of over 2 million people. However, now that the water has started to recede, the mammoth task of cleaning up the state has begun. This has been an amazing experience that has brought out the best in everyone. The affected streets are literally packed full of people helping out those that were affected, cleaning, scrubbing and trying to repair. On top of that, other crazy cool initiatives have kicked off, such as #bakedrelief on Twitter, which has seen people get together to cook & bake for volunteers assisting with the cleanup efforts. It’s truly amazing and inspiring to see so much good happening around the place.

Every little bit that can be done to assist the recovery effort is most appreciated. If you are able to dig deep and donate to the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Fund if would be very much appreciated by so many.

Finally, thankfully, I managed to escape any flood damage which puts me in a category of very lucky people (a relatively small group!). Yes, we may have gone without power for a few days and business around the city may be shut down and disrupted for several weeks, but in the overall scheme of things, it’s minor.

Below, I have included some further photos which I have taken over the past few days. There is a larger collection in this flickr set

Wow, this is pretty awesome news!! Google Australia have just announced that they are after launcing Street Views for lots of locations around Australia. I’ve just had a quick peek on Google Maps and I can see that they have covered the area around our apartment in Brisbane quite well, and I can’t wait to get home tonight and try this out in Google Earth on the mac. This is really, really exciting news though, especially as I should now be able to put together some mashups to show family and friends back home various places that I am day to day around Brisbane.

So, I guess the below image is worth a bit of shameless self promotion! Managed to make it to flickr explore yesterday, which is the first time in a while that I’ve been there. Woke up one morning last week and the fog was shrouding the river and the Story Bridge just as the sun was coming up, decided to grab my camera and just rattle a few shots off from the balcony. Left the images sitting there for a few days until the other night when I done some work, and figured that a sepia tone to this would add some atmosphere and turn it into a really nice shot. Quite happy with how this turned out!

It’s back to work I go!! Wowsa, has it really been nearly 8 weeks since I arrived here in Australia?! That’s kinda insane, the time has just flown by so much. After a well earned holiday (who could ever say no to 8 weeks off work!) I feel refreshed, recharged and ready to hit the ground running with work.

I have been in the fortunate position of being able to take my time with job hunting, and seeking out something that seems really exciting and interesting and being exactly what I want to work at. To that end, tomorrow, I start out as IT Manager for AustCorp, an insurance company based here in Brisbane, with offices in Sydney and Melbourne as well. Currently they have about 100 staff and are going through a rapid phase of expansion through mergers and acquisitions, so the next few months look to be exceptionally exciting, with lots of deadlines and challenges to meet. I really like the whole company ethos and attitude to work, and I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about getting my teeth stuck into work! Will report back over the next few days as to how it’s all going.

Wow, that’s been a hectic week and a half! I’ve finally arrived in Brisbane, and I am absolutely loving it! Life since I arrived has been far too hectic to even think about blogging, I’ve not even been in a position to check my emails much, will catch up with everyone soonish! The weather here has been beautiful, a good mix of blazing sunshine, and lots of much needed rain which has been very good. There is not a single thing about the place that I do not like, and I can’t believe I didn’t make this move years ago! Guess I’m just going to have to play lots of catch up now to make up for lost time!

Hope everyone back home is enjoying the relatively decent weather…not that I’d like to rub it in, but, it’s currently 9am, 29 degrees and sunny here in Brisbane, so, if you think you got it good, you don’t!! Hehe, couldn’t resist!