This article drew the following response on John Quiggin's blog:
"I think you may be over simplifying the flooding in North and Far North Queensland. Ingham, the town that appears most often on the news is on a low flood plain surrounded by mountains and near the Herbert River delta. This river has its source on the western side of the Great Dividing Range near Ravenshoe, and this source location is significant because the area around the headwaters, has had heavy rain since early November from Cyclones, and the Monsoon that comes along this time of year.
"The Monsoon Trough has also contributed to the falls along the coast, as Monsoon troughs and rain depressions do, and all this water combined with king tides results in what is happening in Ingham.
"Deforestation on the floodplain for sugarcane farms happened a long time ago and as far back as I can remember, Ingham had floods. The great majority of the Herbert river is in untouched forest so contrary to your suggestion that deforestation caused the flooding is not the only cause.
"As far as the rainfall is concerned, I live in the hills behind Cairns, and we have had less rain this year than last year and the Barron, our nearest river is not in flood, and has not been this wet.
"I hope this helps you understand the Queensland tropics a bit.
Deforestation doesn't cause floods, but does make impact worse
The following has been cross-posted to the "Fire and Flood" forum on John Quiggin's blog site.
Thanks for your interest and your response James of FNQ. I have cross-posted it as a comment to the article. I trust that that is OK with you. Feel welcome to post further comments there or here. You can do so anonymously, subject to moderation, or using an account.
What I wrote was based on my gut feeling which was confirmed by Hugh Spencer who also lives in Far North Queensland. Hugh describes himself as a 'hands-on conservation biologist'. I am sure he will be most interested in your comments and will respond before long.
I didn't actually say that deforestation caused the floods, rather I said that it made their impacts more severe than they otherwise would have been.
Whether the clearing of land happened recently or over 100 years ago it looks to me, on the evidence, like environmental damage, if, as a consequence, floods cause as much damage as they do.
What got me thinking was the brown colour of the flood water and remembering David Montgomery's excellent "Dirt - the erosion of Civilisations" which pointed out that any agricultural system which allows soil to be washed away faster than it can be created (in the order of one or two inches ever century - I don't have the exact figure on me) is unsustainable.
All past civlisations which allowed their soil to be washed away at a rate faster than what could be replaced has collapsed.
The presence of so much dirt in flood waters (and for that matter, in the Barron river, constantly as Hugh had advised me) is a sign that the natural systems which hold soil in place have been damaged and that Australia is headed in the same direction.