A Bit of Ingham

Ingham, AU - mime - Friday, July 10th, 2009 : goo

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For my photo-journalism subject at Uni, I travelled to Ingham; 110 kilometres north of Townsville; to see how the cleanup was coming along after Cyclones Ellie and Hamish.

A friends' mother offered to drive me around and point out some places that still showed signs of water damage etc. She especially wanted to show me this house.

Originally, it was only several feet off the ground. The fella who owned the house (Mark, a tradesman) was just starting to renovate it When the cyclone hit. He was actually in Townsville donating blood when the cyclone crossed the coast and was cut off from his house for about a week. When he finally saw it he said "Man, what a mess."

Mark lost all his work tools, most of his furniture and had to tear up the floorboards of his house. He then raised the house to the level of a second-story building, quit his job and now spends his days fixing up his house. I chatted to him for a bit and asked if I could take a photo of him sitting on the front stairs. He walked down to where the door was leaning on the stairs, picked it up and threw it off to the side and sat down for his pic.

He was quite an upbeat guy, joking and asking if I wanted him to put on a sad face for the camera. I said no.

His claim for insurance for flood damage returned $3500 dollars which would have been just enough to replace his lost tools. Meanwhile other people around town with minimal damage to their property were receiving payments several thousand dollars more.

Cyclones Ellie and Hamish hit in February of this year (2009) and Mark had just got power hooked up to his house in the last three weeks. He was hoping to see a plumber next week sometime.

While waiting for a lift, I wandered up the top of one of the shopping centres on the main street of Ingham and took some photos.

It seems to be popular with the local kids also...

...who need to stop smoking pot and go back to school to learn how to spell.

Anyway, still waiting I wandered inside the centre (ironically called High Park) and was struck by this odd lighting arrangement on the roof:

This side alley also caught my attention.

That's my little slice of the Ingham town area taken yesterday, Thursday 9 July 2009.

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