Rivers and Waterways, Published 19 May 2026
That Time the River Put the Ship Back Where It Found It!
Talk about a "miracle" in the Botanic Gardens! One of the wildest stories in Brisbane’s history involves a gunboat, a garden, and the most perfectly timed flood in history.
The Great February Flood of 1893 turned Brisbane into a disaster zone. As the river climbed past eight metres, the 360‑ton gunboat HMS Paluma was torn from its moorings and carried straight over the riverbank. When the waters dropped, the city woke to a surreal sight - the Paluma stranded on land, perched in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens.
Imagine going for a stroll past the palms and seeing a massive warship parked on the lawn!
The "Oh No" Moment
The government was staring down a massive bill to get it back. They were looking at spending a fortune to dig a trench or build a slipway to drag the Paluma 300 meters back to the channel. The paperwork was practically signed, and the treasury was sweating.
The "Wait, Really?" Moment
Then, just two weeks later, the clouds opened up again. A second massive flood hit.
In what has to be the luckiest break in Queensland history, the river rose to the exact level needed to refloat the ship. With a bit of help from the tugboat Advance, the Paluma just... floated away.
Nature made the mess, and then nature came back and cleaned it up for us - saving the taxpayers a massive salvage bill in the process!
History Side-Note:
While the Paluma got lucky, the 1893 floods were some of the most destructive we’ve ever seen, taking out the Victoria Bridge and the Indooroopilly railway bridge. This "floating miracle" was a rare bit of good news in a very dark month for Brisbane.
Photo of the Paluma at sea: Dave & Malou illustration. All other images are colourised public‑domain photographs. While care has been taken to preserve original details, the final result is an artistic interpretation and may not perfectly reflect the scene as it originally appeared.
Copyright and reuse
We encourage the sharing of history and information, and we support the responsible reuse of our original content.
Written articles. Unless a page says otherwise, our original written content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). You may copy, share, adapt and reuse it, including commercially, as long as you:
- credit “The Dave & Malou Channel” as the source and, where practical, link to the original page;
- link to the licence; and
- indicate any changes you made, without suggesting that we endorse you or your use.
Photographs and other images. Unless a credit or caption says otherwise, photographs and other images on this website, including illustrations, are available under CC BY 4.0 on the same conditions as our written articles. This covers images we created and images supplied by individuals, archives, libraries and families who have given permission for this use. Please check the credit and caption before you reuse an image, because some are not covered:
- Images marked “© The Dave & Malou Channel” must not be reproduced, reused or distributed without our prior written permission.
- For images credited to another person or organisation that are marked © or otherwise reserve their rights, please contact us before reuse so we can help clarify the copyright status and any permission you need. We cannot give permission on behalf of another copyright owner.
- Images labelled “Public Domain” may be used without permission, subject to any legal restrictions and the accuracy of that label.
Video, audio and third-party material. Video and audio are not covered by the licence unless a page says so. Copyright in material supplied by others, such as quotations, extracts and recordings, stays with its owner and is not covered unless we say so. Please contact us before reusing it.
Our name and logo. The name “The Dave & Malou Channel”, our logo and the look of the website are not covered by the licence. Please do not use them in a way that suggests we are connected with, or endorse, you.
Fair dealing. Nothing in our Website Terms limits your right to use material for private study, research, criticism, review, news reporting, or parody and satire, as permitted by the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).
