A Flood Of Delays For Hinchinbrook Newcomer

When Jenni Hopping packed up her life to move to Forrest Beach in December, she expected a few hiccups—what she didn’t expect was a flood of them.

With her new job at Ingham Manufactures Mitre 10 and plans to settle into her new home at Forrest Beach, everything was falling into place. But now, thanks to major flooding that has split the Bruce Highway in half and thrown the region into chaos, Jenni’s fresh start has hit a standstill.

Prior to this, she lived on Magnetic Island and in Hervey Bay.

Jenni has a shipping container in the Gold Coast, and it was meant to be up here in Forrest Beach already, but now Jenni expects the delays to be even longer.

With major flooding breaking the Bruce Highway in half, flooded roads and other priorities Jenni expects her plot of land in Forrest Beach to be a low priority.  

She needs concreting done and telegraph piles erected, but she has accepted that it may be quite some time before her property receives the work it needs.

“Emergency services will be doing emergency-related jobs; they won’t be putting power on my block,” laughed Jenni.

Among other concerns, Jenni cannot work and does not know when she has to work.

“The lack of power and lack of service is the most frustrating because you just don’t know what is happening out there.”

Jenni works at Mitre 10 on a casual contract, and due to limited reception, she is unsure if she has to work or when she can work. She received a text from her employer informing her that the store had reopened, but she got no other information.

“I don’t know whether any water got into the shop or not, there was very little information in that department, but it sounded like they were okay and opened today. (Wednesday 5th Feb).”

“I'm just playing the waiting game. What can you do?”

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