Flood Lines

27/10/2025

An Unmitigated Flood is based on maps in The Wivenhoe Dam Emergency Action Plan. The technical names given to the two possible scenarios shown in this painting are Probable Maximum Flood (if a dam fails during a rainfall event) and Sunny Day Failure (a flood caused by a dam failure on a dry day).
The painting’s title, An Unmitigated Flood, intentionally has a double meaning. Dams can fail, for example their walls or gates may break, which would allow huge volumes of water to rush uncontrolled downstream. The flood height could not be reduced or mitigated. An essential task of dam management in floods is to save the dam. Water must be released as gated dams have a finite capacity. Uncontrolled water from Wivenhoe Dam would create extreme, unmitigated damage, destroying much in its path and leaving Southeast Queensland with a limited water supply.
We hope to convey the message that dams can mitigate floods in favourable conditions, where the flood waters are largely upstream of the dams, but they cannot prevent them. We should not become too complacent about the risks of living on a sub-tropical floodplain and always respect the dynamism and rhythms of the river.

An Unmitigated Flood
Urarrar/Ngararar River water, hand ground ochre and limestone, copper leaf, charcoal and acrylic paint on canvas.
122 x 122 cm
2025

01/07/2025

Flood Lines has come down but there are still paintings to share!

This painting depicts a more expanded view of the city, marked with the modern street pattern to help orientate viewers.
A Trilogy of Floods refers to the major floods of 1974, 2011 and 2022. The river is clearly marked and surrounded by the flood waters of three separate floods. The smaller flood is the 2022 flood (16.72 metres), 2011 was larger (19.4 metres), and 1974 was larger still (20.7 metres), all heights recorded at the David Trumpy Bridge gauge. This painting was informed by the Ipswich City Historical Flood Information's interactive flood maps.
Every hydrologist will tell you that no two floods are the same. Nature will determine the quantity, intensity, and distribution of rainfall. Humans have built dams, altered the floodplains, and built hard surfaces that alter water flows. This makes flood prediction and management extremely difficult.
Despite draining and channelling the creeks and building up the land, parts of Ipswich remain low-lying and the watery pathways remain, even if hidden in dry years. Although unpredictable, floods are inevitable and perhaps will be more severe and frequent with a changing climate. As you can see in A Trilogy of Floods, floods do follow familiar paths.

A Trilogy of Floods
Urarrar River water, Urarrar flood water, hand ground ochre and limestone, copper leaf, charcoal and acrylic paint on canvas.
122 x 122 cm
2025

06/06/2025

Last weekend to see Flood Lines!

05/06/2025

This painting depicts the heights of the floods in 1893. In that year water surged onto the Ipswich floodplain, causing two floods within a fortnight. Both were record breaking floods, 24.5 metres and 23.6 metres at the river gauge, with a small flood in between. The floodwaters reached a depth of 9 metres in the lower parts of Ipswich. Lives were lost, property destroyed, and the bridge between north and south Ipswich was rendered unusable. As the waters receded the town was shrouded in foul smelling mud, debris and decomposing animals.

Two Record Breaking Floods was informed by a map of the first 1893 flood, held in Queensland State Archives. The flood inundation area is shown with copper leaf. These floods are still the largest recorded floods in Ipswich.

Two Record Breaking Floods
Urarrar/Ngararar river water, Urarrar/Ngararar flood water, hand ground ochre and limestone, copper leaf, charcoal and acrylic paint on canvas.
122 x 122 cm
2025

03/06/2025

The Waterways of Devil's Gully was inspired by Surveyor Henry Wade’s 1843 map. The painting provides a close-up of Devil’s Gully, marking the creeks, and includes a dotted white line indicating the 1841 flood line and the modern street grid to orientate viewers. The copper leaf represents the 1974 flood, one of the largest in Ipswich’s history.

In January 1974 record breaking rains and downstream flows caused Urarrar/Ngararar (Bremer River, Ugarapul / Yuggera languages) to swell and reclaim its floodplain. As Maiwar (Brisbane River) flooded downstream, the flood water in Ipswich could not escape and the city was left submerged by 20 metres for three days until the waters receded.

For most observers it requires a flood to delineate the floodplain.
As you view The Waterways of Devil’s Gully, think how different the city’s flood history may have been had the Jagera, Yuggera and Ugarapul people and Henry Wade’s knowledge been taken into account?

The Waterways of Devil’s Gully
Urarrar/Ngararar River water, Urarrar/Ngararar flood water, hand ground ochre and limestone, copper leaf, charcoal and acrylic paint on canvas.
122 x 122 cm
2025

02/06/2025

Surveyor Henry Wade’s 1843 map was the inspiration for Ghost Creeks as it revealed the ancient watery pathways that led to Urarrar/Ngararar (The Bremer River in Ugarapul / Yuggera languages).

For Kylie this was her starting point for the Flood Lines exhibition. In the 2022 floods Kylie noted that this part of Ipswich always floods, and this sent her searching for answers. Wade’s map, the earliest she could find, provided essential clues as it revealed that the area was a watery space, a network of interconnecting creeks.

Ghosts Creeks depicts part of the floodplain, the river and the creeks, as shown on Wade’s map. The painting is deliberately left free of roads so viewers can imagine Tulmur (now Ipswich), prior to colonisation. The copper leaf symbolises the dynamic nature and energy of the river. The finished painting has been dry brushed with ochres and limestone, the placement of the limestone used to represent the white limestone ridges around Queen’s Park. Kylie has taken Wade’s north point and created her own as an homage to the surveyor.

Over time, the Council has drained the creeks or encased them in pipes to regulate their flow. Layers of soil, roads, and buildings now hide these creeks. But they remain, hidden and ghost-like.

Ghost Creeks
Urarrar/Ngararar River water, hand ground ochre and limestone, copper leaf, charcoal and acrylic paint on canvas.
122 x 122 cm
2025

01/06/2025

It’s the last week of Flood Lines!

25/05/2025

08/05/2025

Flood Lines is in the paper! Thank you Glen for helping us spread the word. The exhibition is on until June 8th.

02/05/2025

Have you found the Flood Line?

In 1841, as Ipswich was still being planned, a devastating flood swept through the area. Surveyor Henry Wade mapped it and warned against building here — but the town rose anyway.
Flood Line, an ephemeral public artwork by artist Kylie Stevens, traces the path of that flood and the ghost creek in Devil’s Gully, still shaping how water moves through the city today.
Part of the broader Flood Lines project — a collaboration between Kylie Stevens and historian and author Dr Margaret Cook — this work invites you to follow the chalk lines and uncover the hidden history beneath your feet.
See the exhibition to learn more at Ipswich Art Gallery until June 8.
Proudly funded by the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF).
The Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) is a partnership between Queensland Government and Ipswich City Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.