BtN: Episode 13 Transcripts 26/05/09
On this week's Behind the News:
- Floods create chaos in Queensland and New South Wales
- Why an overseas holiday became a drama for this family
- And how a handyman’s drill was used to save this boy’s life.
Hi I'm Nathan Bazley welcome to Behind the News.
Also on the show today, we’ll meet the Aussie kid who is the World Junior BMX Champion.
We’ll get to those items later, but first to our stop story.
East Coast Floods
Reporter: Catherine Ellis
INTRO:Tens of thousands of people have been cut off by floodwaters after wild storms in Queensland and New South Wales.
Towns were inundated by water after hundreds of millimetres of rain fell.
The areas affected have been the South East of Queensland around Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and the North East of New South Wales.
Two people have died during the weather and the areas have been declared disaster zones. Here's Catherine to explain what's happening.
CATHERINE ELLIS, REPORTER: It all began in south east Queensland.
After years of being crippled by drought and tough water restrictions, suddenly it was underwater - it was the region’s worst flood since 1974.
Areas from the Sunshine Coast, through Brisbane, to the Gold Coast were affected.
Streets were transformed into waterways and winds of up to 130 k’s an hour ripped trees from their roots and brought down power lines.
Huge waves pounded the coastline - beaches were closed and a car was washed into the ocean!
This driver became stranded on his way to work and had to be rescued - it was one of dozens of rescues by emergency crews.
DRIVER: I tried to drive the car but it stalled and the water just kept rising. We actually got marooned on the netball courts and got floated out on a rubber ducky a bit later on.
A man in Surfers Paradise was killed when flying debris smashed through his office window as he talked on the phone.
Cars were tossed around like bath toys and there were landslides.
RESIDENT: I heard a big roar which I thought was a plane. I ran out and could see all the mud sliding and boulders and trees being washed down the road and down the hill.
Residents like Mel found just about everything they owned underwater.
MEL, RESIDENT: Just devastated because this is our home and everything's gone.
Just as people began cleaning up, the wild weather moved south and crossed the border into north eastern New South Wales.
Many towns were declared natural disaster areas and became cut off by flood waters.
In some towns thousands of residents had to be evacuated as rivers threatened to burst their banks.
SES: We need to evacuate your house immediately.
Many people moved their stuff to higher ground, packed essentials into their cars, and moved to evacuation centres.
So much water in such a short time! But where has it all gone? Will it make any difference to other parts of the country affected by drought?
CATHERINE: Some people were hoping the water would help fill up the thirsty Murray Darling Basin but unfortunately that won't happen because there's this big mountain range called the Great Dividing Range and the rain would need to have fallen on this side to flow into the river system, but most of it fell on the other side.
There was some good news though;
ANNA BLIGH, QLD PREMIER: South east Queensland's worst drought in history is over.
Hundreds of thousands of megalitres of rain filled dams across the region.
But it's little comfort right now to those who've suffered devastating losses and have a huge, expensive clean up ahead of them.
Presenter:And we'll keep you up to date with the cleanup there.
Lake Eyre
Reporter: Nathan Bazley
INTRO: You would have seen in Catherine's story that the floods won't flow in to the Murray Darling system, but four months ago therewassome rain up there that is now having a big effect in another part of the country.
Water has begun filling up Lake Eyre in South Australia and transforming the dry outback into an inland oasis. It's an extremely rare event and one of the most spectacular sights in Australia.
NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: This water has been on a journey four months in the making.
It's travelled thousands of kilometres, across some of the driest land in Australia to get here.
And now it's here, at Lake Eyre in South Australia, it will trigger an extraordinary transformation.
DON ROWLANDS, PARK RANGER, SIMPSON DESERT NATIONAL PARK: And we wait and we wait and all of a sudden the water starts rising and it just seems to take on another look altogether.
You might be wondering, though, where all this water could possibly have come from!
Well it's actually from places as far away as north Queensland.
You might remember we told you earlier this year about floods there. Well it's taken about 4 months for that water to wind its way down the length of the state, through Birdsville to Lake Eyre.
Amazingly this Lake drains one sixth of the whole continent, making it the biggest Lake in Australia when it's full!
NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: One of the reasons so much water ends up here is that Lake Eyre is actually the lowest point in all of Australia - 15m below sea level.
But for water to make it through the hundreds and hundreds of kilometres of dry, parched land, there needs to be huge amounts of rain.
That's why the event is so rare. This amazing part-time lake only fills completely around four times every hundred years.
This was one of the biggest floods in 1984.
But what happens the rest of the time?
Well most of the time it looks like this.
That's called a salt lake, which is when the water evaporates away to leave a very flat plain of salt on the ground, and that comes in useful for this!
PRESENTER (archival footage): The Blue bird raced across the salt flat at an amazing 648 kilometres an hour. Briefly, Lake Eyre was world news.
Yep, it was a racetrack!
Back in the 1960s, a land speed record was set on this lake, which was used because of its flat and dry salt crust.
But most of the time it has laid here empty like a desert wasteland.
Well that was until the water arrived!
Now life has shot out everywhere and scientists have shot up everywhere to study it!
One of them is Professor Richard Kingsford and he's been studying the effect the drought had on water birds across Australia.
PROFESSOR RICHARD KINGSFORD: A flood like this is just so important for actually building up the numbers.
He's found this massive colony of 40 to 60 thousand pelicans and this colony of ten thousand whistling ducks, all flying from different parts of Australia, following the water further west towards Lake Eyre.
But the wildlife and plants aren't the only ones thriving out here because of this amazingly rare event.
Farmers will use the next few seasons to take advantage of the abundance of food and water for their livestock.
And tourists have been flocking to the area to get a glimpse of this awesome natural display, which has turned from this, to this, all they had to do was just add water.
Quiz
What a sight. Let's stay in the outback and do a quiz about monoliths, which is the name given to large outcrops of stone.
What is the largest monolith in Australia?
- Uluru
- Mt Kosciuszko
- Mt Augustus
Answer: Mt Augustus
Lots of people say Uluru is the largest but geologists say Mt Augustus in Western Australia is much bigger and Mt Kosciuszko is just a normal mountain.
Swine Flu
Now to an update on a story we told you about a while ago - swine flu.
Quite a few cases have now been diagnosed in Australia and some of them are kids. That's meant schools are having to close down to stop the virus spreading.
One place where kids have a few days off is Clifton Hills Primary in Victoria.
Two brothers there caught the flu on a trip to Disneyland, another student caught if off them as well.
Their families are now quarantined in their homes. They have food delivered and aren't allowed to leave.
So are some of their mates.
XANDER: “It's annoying because I've got a lot on and now I've missed it.”
The schoolkids were given special medicine for the flu.
“IT’S SOUR”
A few other schools in Victoria and South Australia have also closed, including Thornbury High School, Eynesbury College and Blackfriars Priory School.
Any students coming home from a trip to the US, Mexico, Canada, Japan and Panama are also being asked to stay in their homes for seven days, just to make sure.
But the good news is that while the flu is making people here sick - so far no-one has been seriously ill.
Presenter: And there's a story explaining all about swine flu on our website. If you want to avoid it - the advice is - Wash, wipe, cover - don't infect another.
Online Poll
Now while everyone wants to stop swine flu spreading, some people aren't happy with the policy to shut schools if a case is discovered.
They say kids are missing out on important work and sport, so we'll make that this week's poll.
The question is: Should schools shut down if a student catches swine flu?
If you want to vote just hit up our website.
Poll Results
And in last week's poll 81 percent of you said jumps racing should be banned.
Overseas Laws
Reporter: Sarah Larsen
INTRO: Let’s go overseas now and if there's one thing Aussie's love it’s travelling. It’s fantastic to see new places, meet new people and experience different cultures.
But different cultures often see things differently and something that's acceptable in one place might get you into trouble in another.
Here's Sarah to explain.
SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: So, you're going on an overseas holiday, which is really exciting, but there's heaps to think about. What's the weather going to be like, hot or cold? Do they speak another language? Got your phrase book?
KID: I've got my ticket, my passport, toothbrush, all set!
Hang on, haven't you forgotten something?
KID: No? what?
REPORTER: Research! You really should find out about the laws and customs of the country you're going to, otherwise your holiday could turn into a nightmare!
That's what a Melbourne woman found out last week. She was in Thailand on holidays and was out having fun at this hotel. As a joke, her friends say they put a mat belonging to the hotel in her bag. But the Thai police didn't think it was funny; they arrested her.
REPORTER: Even though stealing is illegal in Australia, if you stole something like this you probably wouldn't go to jail. But in Thailand it was a bit different. The mum was locked up for a while.
Then she was made to stay in the country while the court decided her punishment. That could have been up to five years in prison and her four kids were really scared.
KID: We just love our mum so much and we just want her home now. I can't really stand it that much longer.
In the end the Thai court let her go home but her case shows how easy it can be to get into a lot of trouble overseas. There are almost 200 different countries in the world and each one has its own laws and customs. Things that are totally acceptable in one place might be against the law in another and just like we expect foreign visitors to respect Australian laws, when we travel we have to obey overseas laws.
In some countries there are laws about what you wear. You might not be allowed to wear shorts or singlets and women might have to wear head scarves like these. In Singapore you can be arrested for chewing gum on the street. In Florence, Italy, you're not allowed to sit, eat or drink on steps near churches. In some countries you can get arrested for taking a photo of a government building and overstaying your visa in the US, even by a day, can land you in jail.
A few years ago this Aussie was thrown in jail in Thailand just for something he wrote. He was accused of insulting a member of the Thai royal family and over there insulting royalty is illegal. Penalties can also be much tougher overseas. If someone is caught with illegal drugs in Australia it generally means a few years in jail. In other places it can mean life in prison or the death penalty. That's why the Australian government runs ads like this warning Aussies to be careful. It says it does try to help people when they're in trouble but in the end it’s up to everyone to do their own research and be careful.
PRESENTER: And the department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has a website with information on laws and customs in each country.
Dr. Drill
Reporter: Catherine Ellis
INTRO: If you've ever checked out your family's tool shed, it's unlikely you would have spotted something that looked like it could perform a life saving operation, but if you'd spotted a normal household power drill, you'd be wrong!
It sounds crazy but a Doctor in country Victoria actually did that.
He drilled into the skull of a teenage boy and saved his life. Here's Catherine.
CATHERINE ELLIS, REPORTER: Nicholas Rossi is one very lucky boy. He's on his way to making a full recovery after doctors saved his life last week.
The teenager from Maryborough in country Victoria - about two hours from Melbourne - had been riding in the street with his friend. It was wet, his foot slipped and he fell and hit his head.
His mum took him to hospital and later doctors noticed he was drifting in and out of consciousness - they decided he must have a brain bleed.
CATHERINE: Now when you get a brain bleed you might not see any blood because it's bleeding on the inside - and that makes it a very serious problem.
The blood builds up inside the skull and has nowhere to go. It puts pressure on the brain and pushes it towards the hole at the bottom of the skull which can kill you - the pressure also stops new blood flowing into your brain and it dies.
CATHERINE: So to stop all this and relieve the pressure, doctors make a hole in the skull to allow the blood to drain away.
The trouble was, the hospital didn't have the right equipment.
Usually only big city hospitals have the specialised gadgets and specially trained surgeons to run them - brain surgery is a big deal!
But Nicholas' doctor could see Nicholas was deteriorating so he had to act quickly.
He had to improvise to solve the problem so he grabbed a hand drill - like this one - from the maintenance room.
KAREN ROSSI, MUM: He said I’m going to have to do a burr hole I'm going to have one go only and I just said alright do it.
Dr Carson hadn't ever used a hand drill, let alone performed an operation like this, but with help over the phone from a brain surgeon in Melbourne, he drilled a one centimetre hole near the wound, drained the blood and relieved the pressure on Nicholas' brain.
DR ROB CARSON:Coming to the spot where I wanted to stop, I had to then ask David how to put the drill into reverse.
Nicholas was then airlifted to a bigger hospital in Melbourne where he made an amazing recovery and days later celebrated his 13th birthday.
DR DAVID WALLACE: I think it was a miraculous effort by the boys in Maryborough, and I think without it he probably would have died.
It's common for specialists like Dr Wallace to give advice over the phone or the internet from interstate or even from the other side of the world!
CATHERINE: Now there is one big lesson to come out of this story - it might never have happened if Nicholas was wearing his helmet.
While some kids see the protective gear as a hassle, the brain is very precious - and the simple act of putting on a helmet can save your life.
PRESENTER: I struggled making a bookshelf in shop class at school, let alone brain surgery.
But the story really does show you the importance of wearing a helmet.
The Score
That's exactly what cricketers do, and we see what they're up to first in the score.
Andrew Symonds's test cricket career may be over after he was dropped from the Ashes squad to tour England in July.
Symonds is now 34, leading some commentators to suggest the side is looking to younger players for the future.
******
Staying with cricket, and in the Indian Premier League Adam Gilchrist has showed he's still got it by firing the fastest fifty in IPL history - off just 17 balls, to send his side through to the final.