The Flood: History Reclaims the Chain of Ponds

Just a few kilometres west of the brass lions and clock tower in Brisbane city's King George Square, over a patchwork of corrugated iron and great crowns of poinciana and fig trees, is a little crosshatch of streets on the floor of a suburban valley. The streets - Nash, Elizabeth, Baroona, Beck and a handful of others - are flanked on three sides by the steep ridges and folds of nearby Paddington, Bardon and Auchenflower. The fourth, and open, side runs through neighbouring Milton and down to the banks of the Brisbane River, less than a kilometre to the south-east.