Queensland cyclones and floods 2011

Posted by geoff on February 8, 2011

Queensland tourism has certainly had some setbacks over the past month. Firstly the Brisbane flood situation has now been resolved and everything is back to normal as far as travel is concerned. The Gold Coast had little affect from this and it is business as usual right along the coast. All the Gold Coast accommodation is experiencing strong demand. Similarly, on the Sunshine Coast, some flooding in early January has now completely subsided and all the main resort areas like Noosa and Mooloolaba are operating at full capacity. The Fraser Coast has been virtually unaffected. Fraser island is full of holiday campers. In the Whitsundays, some effect was felt from cyclone Yasi. Damage here was generally cosmetic and the clean up was finished the next day. Hamilton Island and Hayman Island are now running business as usual. It should be noted that Peppers Palm Bay resort has been closed until further notice and Long Island resort is closed for refurbishment. North Queensland has had a pounding in certain parts. Townsville copped plenty of wind from Cyclone Yasi but bothTownsville and Magnetic Island got away with minimal damage. Dunk Island resort and Bedarra Island resort both received considerable damage and will be closed for some time pending massive rebuilding. Mission beach also had severe damage and some resorts there have plenty of repairs to do, while others have reopened. Cairns got off comparatively lightly with the cyclone making landfall to the south. All Cairns accommodation and the northern beaches region, together with Port Douglas are now all back to normal trading conditions. As the popular winter months in Queensland approach, there will only be a few places where the La Nina weather conditions that have been so so severe this year, will continue to have an effect on the tourism trade.