Six lives have been lost following severe storms across Australia’s east coast this week.
Overnight, a woman’s body has been found in a campground in Buchan in Victoria’s east after yesterday’s flash flooding in the region.
She is the second person to die in Victoria during the Boxing Day storms.
It comes as overnight the body of a nine-year-old girl was recovered following an extensive search south of Brisbane. Police say she was swept into a flooded storm drain in Rochedale during the December 26 storms.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Acting Deputy Commissioner, Kevin Walsh, described the death as tragic.
“The young child went missing behind some properties and obviously our swift water rescue teams attended and a short time later we found the young girl deceased some way down from where she went into the water, so tragic circumstances.”
The young girl’s death has raised the death toll in Queensland to four, after the state experienced severe storms across both Christmas and Boxing Day. Three people remain missing.
Searches have today continued north of the Sunshine Coast where two women were swept away in floodwaters in Gympie on Tuesday. A 40-year-old woman’s body was found yesterday and the search for the second woman has resumed this morning.
A 59-year-old woman was also killed on Christmas night on the Gold Coast after being struck by a tree.
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