**I only found out tonight from online friends that the media coverage of the floods in some countries has been poor. A number of my friends have friends & family who live in flood affected region which covers an area that is 5x size of the UK (2x size of Texas) and have been begging for people to pray & asking for those who are able to donate to the Queensland Flood Disaster Appeal.  If you are on twitter, I would love if you could show your support to the Australians by tweeting using the #QLDflood hashtag. Thank you to many of my twitter friends who have already done this – it is very much appreciated**

Of all the stops I made on my trip to East Coast Australia, the stop in Brisbane was one of the toughest points for me. However, it also gave me one of the memories I will treasure forever…hugging a koala!

Australia has a special place in my heart, and 2 years ago I watched with horror the scenes of the Bushfires in Victoria – some of them in places where I had driven through in the pitch dark trying to find our way from the Great Ocean Road back to the main motorway back to Melbourne.

Over the last fortnight, I’ve watched with horror again at the floods in Queensland. I didn’t see much of Queensland on my trip as the girls couldn’t afford to road trip up to Cairns  from Byron Bay like we had originally thought we would do, and I ended up flying to Cairns from Brisbane while they headed to Fraser Island.

I’ve been so thankful that my friend who lives in Queensland has so far been unaffected by the flood – but he’s one of the lucky ones. Thousands have had their homes & businesses destroyed. 10 people are known to be dead, 80 are missing after flash floods hit several towns in a sort of inland tsunami. Some people had just returned to their homes & towns clearing up after floods before New Year, only for another flood to hit them once again.

As the floods head South, they are expected to hit Brisbane today, and one of my favourite places I visited while in Australia is in the suburb of Fig Tree Pocket, and right next to the Brisbane River…

…Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

From memory, Fig Tree Pocket was mostly residential houses, and I’m sure many families may have evacuated their homes and for some of the Brisbane residents, this will be the second time in their life to have experienced a flood disaster after the 1974 flood.

It’s awful, unimaginable. One resident of a town hit my flash floods yesterday described it as ‘armageddon’. But if there is one thing I know about Australians, it is that they are resilient.

It’s also likely that there are a TON of backpackers out in Australia just now – January is a popular time for people to start trips in Australia. Most of the backpackers I met there had been in Australia since late Dec/early Jan and left in May/June.

Anyway. Prayer is needed. But also practical help – the damage caused is already in the AUS$ billion mark.

You can help by giving to the Queensland Relief appeal here (to the QLD government appeal) or here (to Australian Red Cross appeal).

My thoughts and prayers go to everyone who has been affected, especially those who have lost loved ones or are missing.