Brisbane floods devastate hospitality businesses

Hospitality businesses in Brisbane, from hotels and pubs, to restaurants and cafes, have been devastated by rising flood waters in the disaster hit city.

Footage posted online yesterday of one of the restaurants first to be affected, Drift Café, was watched with horror as it showed the business's pontoon breaking away from its site and starting to float down the Brisbane River covered with chairs.

The restaurant was later pulled down into the river and submerged by the rising waters.

Owner David Moore reportedly sent a text message to friends and colleagues saying the restaurant had been declared a natural disaster.

"I was just asked by the civil engineers to open all windows and doors to let the river flow through," Mr Moore wrote. "They are expecting that the flood will continue to rise over the next few days and the restaurant will either sink or be washed down the river."

The disaster comes just months after the restaurant was named best new restaurant at the 2010's Savour Australia Restaurant & Catering Awards for Excellence.

Restaurant & Catering Australia chief executive officer John Hart said his office had spoken to many of its members situated in the Brisbane CBD and close to the river that had been affected by the flooding.

"A lot of them are inundated as they say – there are a lot of restaurants along the river," Hart said yesterday afternoon.

"Drift and also Jellyfish were one of the first ones to go. It's just terrible, really terrible, and the reality is that most of those businesses didn't have flood cover.

"We've spoken to a dozen or so at the front there but there would be more than that affected on the Eagle Street Pier Complex it went up further than those that were just riverfront. Cha Cha Char was under water, Il Centro, all of those.

"We are just praying that it doesn't get to the first floor which will wipe out another whole layer including two that were opened beginning of December with $4m dollar fit outs."

Hart said he expected hundreds of restaurant and catering businesses to be affected. "The difficulty is that a lot of these businesses just won't survive," he said.

In the Brisbane CBD yesterday major accommodation hotels including the Stamford Plaza and Marriot were closed and the Hilton was on alert as water entered its basement areas.

A spokesman from hotels giant Accor said its hotels in the city were so far unaffected apart from the Mercure Brisbane —the group's CBD hotel closest to the river — which closed its car park as a precaution. The group's other CBD hotels include the Novotel Brisbane, Ibis Brisbane Hotel and the Sofitel Brisbane Central.

"So far so good for us," said Neil Scanlan, regional general manager for Accor Hotels in Queensland.

"We still have food, definitely have water, and are still open for business. Accor's hotels are accepting affected relocated guests from other hotels, housing dislocated residents who have checked in for respite, as well as relief workers and emergency staff who are being based in the city managing the crisis and working to clean up areas where the waters have receded."

Scanlan said Accor's Far North Queensland hotel and resorts were also throwing their doors open to victims of Queensland's worst flooding disaster, in particular those who may not be able to return to their homes for several days or weeks.

Those who have offered to join with Tourism Tropical North Queensland to help include Novotel Cairns Oasis Resort, Pullman Reef Casino, Mercure Harbourside, Novotel Rockford Palm Cove, All Seasons Cairns, and the Mercure Tree Tops Port Douglas.

Source: Hospitality Magazine