The cleanup in Brisbane is already well underway and the CBD is back in action again - at least in some parts. The same is occuring across the regions of Queensland and northern New South Wales that were affected by floodwaters - and now Victoria too!

The tens of thousands of volunteers and army personel who went in as soon as the waters dropped have already begun the massive cleanup phase. The rebuilding to follow will take some time and many billions of dollars, especially for those who had water in their homes and businesses. It is those poeple who are now entering a longer painful phase of rebuilding, and lets not forget in some cases grieving for lost loved ones.

Despite all of the trials the floods brought, the conference did go on, although it had to move venue - to another QUT campus, and some services around it are still disrupted. The organisers did a tremendous job in getting it back on its feet again just weeks after the devastation, so that the international guests and speakers could still come (including people like Vint Cerf - one of the "fathers" of the Internet).

With the massive volunteer cleanup effort and the work of the government and city council, I understand from friends, work colleagues and family who live in Brisbane that a lot of the city has now pretty much returned to normal. The tens of thousands of buildings that went under however are going to take time, although in some areas they have already cleaned up businesses, ripped out and re-gyprock sheeted walls, re-wired the electricals and gotten back into business, just days after the waters receeded. Volunteers from around the continent have been pouring into SE Queensland to help. The Aussie spirit is truely amazing to behold!

The worry is that flooding is not yet over in some parts of the continent. The same rain bearing system that drowned SE and central Queensland and Northern New South Wales also dropped considerable rain on the Murray River basin (which spans about a 1/4 of the continent) in Western Victoria. Flood waters are now making their way across the state of Victoria threatening more towns, farms and cities. Next will be South Australia, the last state that the river system crosses on it's journey to the sea. The waters won't reach my state for probably another 1-2 months - we will have to wait to see how much impact they cause to the Riverland communities in their path.

Unfortunately we are just not far enough south to see the Aurora Australis - it's been seen in Adelaide I think only twice in the last 30 years - with the big display back in 1979 when the solar flux was at a record peak.

As for lightning, well the team has flown through a rain storm once before, with the unintended consequence that it brought the balloon down as the payload and balloon were weighted down with water.

Thanks for the feedback - glad you liked it!