Using a blow up pool float, Malcolm Meiers guided his rescue greyhound Sally, who is petrified of water, across his flooded street to safety.
Delving into torso-deep murky floodwaters, the Bxjmtzywrisbane dad delivered the pooch to dry ground before returning to his inundated home to fetch a couple of bags of things to carry above his head as he floated back across the water on a bodyboard.
“He doesn’t even go out far in the ocean,” wife Kate Christensen said.
“I knew it would have taken a lot for him to do that.
“That’s why I was so proud of him for all the efforts he tried to do to save our house while he was there alone and his bravery to get into the water.”
Kate and their one-year-old son Sunny were visiting her parents in the Sunshine Coast and missed the deluge when an offshoot of the Brisbane river near their Windsor home flooded.
Malcolm evacuated on Sunday after rising water levels engulfed the bottom floor of their Windsor home.
The couple lost up to 80 per cent of their belongings including a cookbook collection valued at about $20,000 belonging to Malcolm, who is a chef, a vintage kiln and vintage furniture.
“He has a $3000-4000 bread oven, all our electricals are gone, all our furniture pretty much,” Kate said.
“Every single cookbook that Mal owns is now on the pavement.
“The most heartbreaking thing is … they’re a collection that’s been carefully curated and gathered for 15 years.”
The couple, both 35, rented the house, which is on stilts and now unliveable, after water rose to at least shoulder-height by Sunday evening.
They did not have contents insurance.
Kate said when they moved in more than two years ago, two insurers refused to cover a high risk flood zone while a third offered premiums too high for the single income family to afford.
“It was either a car insurance and a little bit of money to enjoy ourselves or the same amount would have had to go to the contents insurance,” she said.
“We took that risk, knowing it does flood but it’s a once-a-decade thing. We never predicted it’d come up so high.”
The couple is now trying to save what they can and has a place to stay temporarily.
Luckily Malcolm packed precious items such as Kate’s wedding earrings, her grandmother’s locket and his wedding ring in a ziplock bag.
They’ve also been able to save most of their clothes, toys and a pram but have launched a fundraising bid to help with costs to start anew.
“Elderly people who’ve lived in the area a long time say they’ve never seen as much water,” Kate said.
“I can deal with my loss. I look at other people and it just breaks my heart.”
