For the best part of the past week our Media Glass House researchers have been biting their collective tongues whenever they hear or read about the “bridge collapse” at Ollera Creek north of Townsville that has cut the Bruce Highway during the North Queensland flood crisis. (main picture)

They have held their tongues because it seemed churlish to them to take our news media representatives to task for what is indeed a rather small quibble in the overall bigger story about the floods that have hit so many communities and disrupted or taken lives.

But, as one of them said after staying silent for some days: “Fuck it. This is an issue of accuracy in reporting.”

So this column gives vent to their argument about the application of the “bridge collapse” terminology that many media outlets have used to describe how the Bruce Highway running over Ollera Creek came to be cut.

Our MGH teams do not wish to appear as armchair sleuths, nor do they want to single out one news organisation, but they do say that the ABC has been applying the “bridge collapse” label very freely.

Their gripe is that, even from the safety of their very dry multi-level offices in The Bug’s palatial Brisbane headquarters, our MGH researchers have drawn the conclusion that the bridge itself did not collapse.

They believe it is clear that the roadway leading to the bridge collapsed after being subjected to torrential floodwaters well beyond what it would normally face.

One of the initial stories on ABC News Online about the event said the bridge had washed away even though online photos of the scene showed the bridge (that’s the big concrete bit) still intact, but with the creek bank carrying the highway leading to the bridge having disappeared after being savagely undercut by floodwaters in the creek. (below)

The fact the bridge itself still stands with its approach washed away is evident in other online photos taken by the Army or SES. (below)

For comparison, our MGH teams have provided a few snaps of actual bridge collapses. (below)

A person with much experience in responding to natural disasters once told one of our MGH researchers that the initial information received by responding authorities in floods, bushfires, cyclones, earthquakes is often very reliably wrong.

Our MGH teams suspect that is the case with the Ollera Creek bridge early descriptions from the scene were that the bridge had collapsed and the wording stuck.

Yet some outlets, like the national broadshit The Australian, have provided a more accurate assessment. (below)

Why, our reader may rightly ask, is this nit-picking important?

Because on cue the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Queensland Premier David Crisafulli were on the scene promising to dig deep into our pockets to rebuild the bridge to a bigger and better standard.

Our reader, as a taxpayer, will foot that bill running into millions, perhaps billions of dollars, despite the fact in the eyes of our MGH staff, the bridge itself has actually stood up – literally – to the floods and the actual and less expensive solution may well be to rebuild the roadway approaches to a higher stand to avoid future flash erosion.

The catastrophic nature of the recent rainfall levels that caused the floodwaters that in turn destroyed the road approach to the bridge are clear when you consider a picture of Ollera Creek from Google Maps taken in only October 2024.

Having had their say, our MGH teams insist they will now STFU and await with interest the inevitable future criticisms and political attacks, finger-pointing, and blame-laying when the existing bridge is not replaced at great expense.

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