Quick flood update:As of today the Garden Centre has reopened 70% OF OUR STOCK IS BACK IN STORE

theoldboathouse is also located within
 The Cottage Garden Nursery
999 Stanley St. East (cnr Edgar St.)
East Brisbane.

We are shop 17. The centre is open 7 days a week from about 8 am to 4.30pm.
(FLOOD UPDATE: As of today, Sunday the 16th of January the garden centre has reopened with antiques, flowers and plants for sale)   

So, so Lucky!! Close shave for the Cottage Garden Centre

What can we say? Watching what has happened to our city and our state is just so heart breaking. We just feel so incredibly lucky that due to the waters not going as high as estimated the Cottage Garden Nursery has been spared. The river peak was 4.6 m and not the predicited 5.5 m that would have seen the Nursery go under. Kristen managed to weave his way into the area this morning and took some footage of the waters next to the Nursery below. The waters had already started to recede as they came up to the garden bed you can see in front of the Nursery.

Again we feel just so lucky and relieved. But our neighbouring suburbs are in places partly under water and there is going to be a massive effort needed to rebuild our state.

This photo is of part of Norman Park, the corner of Stanley St East and Bennets Road, not far from the Nursery. For those of you who know the Blog and shop LilyG, that is the LilyG shop in the corner of the picture. It looks like the waters came very close to them too.

Our hearts go out to all of those affected but as Anna Bligh our premier says, we are Queenslanders and although this is breaking our hearts it will not break our spirit!

Evacuation of theoldboathouse at The Cottage Garden Nursery East Brisbane

                         Firstly thank you so much for all your wonderful comments on my last post. Knowing that people from all over the world are thinking of us and have our State of Queensland in their thoughts is so appreciated. Well we have not long finished clearing out most of The Cottage Garden Nursery in East Brisbane in preparation for the rising waters. We didn't fuss, it all got loaded onto the back of the ute and is now under our house. With each return home trip we watched as water slowly crept further across the roads and on our last trip the police were out in one spot as the roads were cut in part of Norman Park.

The boys worked really hard helping us. Note the sun in the sky that has finally started to shine almost taunting us and making us feel perhaps the rising waters will be all a bad dream.

                          John continued making coffees for everyone and for East Brisbane regulars that came into the Garden Centre. I said to him he reminded me of the musicians on the Titanic who continued to play as the ship was sinking.

                              Emptying out the Antiques room. People walking past on the footpath kept asking if they could help and it was surprising how such a simple gesture can lift your spirits and spur you on.

 

                       We have had to leave some shelving behind but my space looks so sad all empty.

             John, the other half of the lovely Bev in his nearly empty space at the centre.

                           More empty shelves.

                                I left my life ring as it is up high and it is my lucky charm to watch over the Garden Centre. Hopefully The Woolloongabba Antique Centre will hold too. Good luck Brisbane our thoughts are with all those in the flood path....see you on the otherside of all this...xxxx Katherine and Kristen theoldboathouse.

Water set to rise at The Garden Centre in Brisbane Floods ???

This is a picture from the 1893 flood in Brisbane of The Lord Stanley Hotel in East Brisbane. The Lord Stanley is located  across the road from The Cottage Garden Nursery in East Brisbane. They are predicting that these current Brisbane floods which may hit tomorrow or Thursday, may be worse then the floods in 1974. Apparently the site of The Garden Centre was shoulder height under water then. If the Cottage Garden Nursery had been there in 1893 you would not be able to see it in this photo as the 1893 flood was much higher then the 1974 flood. So what to do ? Kristen and the boys are planning to head over and remove as much as we can to our home here in Hawthorne, if it is possible. Thankfully we are on high ground in Hawthorne. Of course we are mindful that at the end of the day it is only "stuff". Our thoughts are with all our fellow Queenslanders who are in floods or bracing for floods. Our country is truely a land of "droughts and flooding rain".