Australian Floods 2011

praying all are safe…

Hi William,

Thank you for your message- we are very fortunate in Gladstone (close to the sea and quite hilly) and have not been affected by the floods. We drove straight home the day we left you- and lucky we did because many of the roads were cut by Sunday night! I heard that Perthville had to be evacuated around Christmas time- has Rockley been afftected by the floods?

Thanks again
Bianca

We are in Brisbane and just moved our press on the weekend past. The room that it is in is flooding somewhat but more due to rain than the rising river. We are all bracing for a BIG flood here in Brisbane.

Hold on to your hats.

-THW

Thankyou Ericm.
Bianca, remember, don’t forget to oil the two platen surfaces very well. Remember to tightly fill all oil holes with
oil-drenched cotton wool. During these extreme times a good run over of all bare non-enamelled iron parts is advisable. Peppers Creek in Rockley had swelled to the rim of its banks and became a raging torrent. Recently a horseman with horse and float was isolated most of one night till it dropped its level.
THW, what is your press? If its electrified, should you take the motor off?
William Amer

We have a heidelberg windmill, we are only expecting the feet to get a little splash, as long as we can keep battling the waters.

But we still have deadlines to meet. I am sopping up water while my wife is running the press. Its a bit hectic, but its fun.

Very dangerous, not “fun”. Water, dampness and electricity don’t mix.Your bravado will kill you. If not, your insurance will fail you!
William Amer

Hi William,

I won’t forget- I plan to give it a good spray this weekend to clean it up and oil all the oil holes. Nick has been busy building a small room under the house for it to live. Once its all finished i think i might set up a blog of photos. Ill pop up some of it hanging from the tree trunk- so you can show people how we do it in Aus!

Well done, Bianca and Nick
Bit concerned about the pics with me in it.
Any chance of photo shopping me a bit, maybe drop in Errol Flynn’s face. Sensitivity required here!!
[Chuckle, Chuckle]
By the way, that tree branch was nearly under water a week later!. You obviously slung the press, like I did, so that it wouldn’t flip over when lifted. Good stuff.
William of Rockley, NSW

Just taking our time building the studio/room for the press and in the meantime trying to take in as much information as I can about lettterpress printing!

When I get round to it i’ll send some photos to your e-mail.

Really!! lucky we came without hesitation when we did.

It was a bit of a struggle to get it off the back of the ute- initially we thought we could tie it to the beam under the house and lower it down but it was too high on the back of the ute to do that so it took about 6 men to move it!

Thanks again,

Bianca

Hi William,
Haven’t been on here for a short while and just saw your well wishes. Thankfully we weren’t directly affected by the flood at our place however my father only just got out last weekend. He and his neighbors were virtually on farm islands and had to get supplies heli-dropped. A few bridges out and it was all but impossible to get in or out, lots and lots of fences to rebuild and random new trees in paddocks to be chopped up.

Thank-you all so much for your prayers.

Sammy B