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If you had outdoor plans for this weekend, be prepared for them to be postponed in lieu of an indoor movie/board game type of weekend!

The forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology is looking rather bleak with showers and a possible thunderstorm forecast for the rest of the day, with falls from 40mm-90mm predicted. The forecast for Saturday and Sunday is similar, with falls between 15mm-50mm forecast for Saturday.

An incredibly moist air mass will combine with a coastal trough to produce areas of heavy rain across Southeast Queensland today and into Saturday morning, which we are currently experiencing.

All river and creek heights in the Moreton Bay region are below minor, at the time of writing.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued an initial flood watch, which provides early advice of possible flooding within the specified catchments:

Initial Flood Watch for coastal catchments from Maryborough to Caboolture

Flood Watch Number: 1

River level rises above the minor flood level are possible from Friday.

Moderate to heavy falls are possible across the Flood Watch area from Thursday evening and will continue during Friday and into Saturday.

Rainfall totals of 40-140 mm have been recorded in the Mary River catchment and Sunshine Coast rivers and creeks in the 24 hours to 9:00 am Thursday.

Further widespread rainfall totals of 50-100 mm are expected during Friday and into Saturday, with isolated totals of up to 150 mm possible.

River levels rises above the minor flood level are possible in the Flood Watch area from Friday.

Catchments likely to be affected include:

See www.bom.gov.au/qld/warnings to view the current flood warnings for Queensland.

For more information on the Flood Watch Service: http://www.bom.gov.au/water/floods/floodWarningServices.shtml

Flood Safety Advice:

This Flood Watch means that people living or working along rivers and creeks should monitor the latest weather forecasts and warnings.

Remember: If it’s flooded, forget it.

For flood emergency assistance contact the SES on 132 500.

For life threatening emergencies, call Triple Zero (000) immediately.

Current emergency information is available at www.qld.gov.au/alerts.

This advice is also available by dialling 1300 659 219 at a low call cost of 27.5 cents, more from mobile, public and satellite phones.

Warning, rainfall and river information are available at www.bom.gov.au/qld/flood/

The Queensland Police Service has also issued a timely warning:

With heavy rain falling across large parts of the state today, police are urging motorists to drive to conditions and heed the message: if it’s flooded, forget it.

A number of drivers were rescued after proceeding through flooded roads in the Wide Bay area yesterday.

As the rain moves further south, police are warning drivers particularly around the Sunshine Coast, Caboolture and Brisbane areas to slow down, turn their headlights on and increase their stopping distance.

Under severe storms or heavy rain bands, flash flooding can occur very quickly and without any notice – even on roads that you usually travel on without any issues.

Flash flooding can cause significant structural damage to roads, so even if you think it looks safe, you can never be sure exactly what is underneath the water.

No matter what car you drive, no matter what bike you ride, no matter what shoes you wear – if it’s flooded, forget it.

Seqwater have advised that low flow releases from Somerset Dam are planned in the next 48 hours. Wivenhoe lake level rise will be less than 0.5 metres over the 48 hour period. Somerset Dam is currently operating on a temporary full capacity of 80% due to the  Somerset Dam Improvement Program which began in January 2016. Somerset is currently 77.3% full, while Wivenhoe is only 68.2% full.

Forty percent of Australian Christian College Moreton’s 2017 graduating cohort are heading to the University of the Sunshine Coast, some of them the first in their family to attend university.

College principal Gary Underwood said 13 students from a class of 32 had chosen to study at USC, and that travel would be easy to the Sippy Downs or Caboolture campuses.

“The main USC campus is about 40 minutes away from their homes in Morayfield and Caboolture and the Caboolture campus is just up the road,” Mr Underwood said.

The students are enrolled to study psychology, environmental science, biomedical science, law and commerce and other degrees.

The students from both in-class and distance learning backgrounds.

“For many of them, they are absolutely the first in their family to go to university,” Mr Underwood said.

“And that is our goal – to give students in this region the ability to do something no one in their family has done before.

“We work closely with each child and put a lot of work into ensure each child knows where they want to go and what they want to achieve.”

The college, which has a significant distance learning cohort, offers all students online class discussions and resource management, similar to what they will use at university.

Student Ava Maclean-Tuckett, of Burpengary, will be living at student accommodation near campus while she studies a Bachelor of Biomedical Science, inspired by a love of high school biology.

“I chose USC because the atmosphere on campus is really nice, it’s friendly and open and easy to find your way around,” she said.

Adriaan Van Staden, from Glass House Mountains, completed his high schooling via distance learning, and is looking forward to studying a Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Business (Financial Planning).

“I’m starting my own small business making and selling game boards and it will be good to have this background so I know what’s legal,” Adriaan said.

“My family emigrated to Australia in 2010, so starting a business is a way of getting a start in a new country.

“My sister is in her final year of a Bachelor of Science and I’ve heard from her that it’s a magnificent university with lots of support.”

Detectives are investigating an attempted armed robbery at a service station in Caboolture overnight.

At around 11:30pm a man armed with a knife approached two people at the business on Lower King Street, demanding their vehicles.

When a third person arrived at the station the man fled the scene on foot.

No one was physically injured during the incident and no property or cars were stolen.

The man is described as Caucasian, aged in his early 20s and was last seen wearing a bright blue polo shirt with dark shorts and a white cap.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Policelink 131 444 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

If you have information for police, contact Policelink on 131 444 or provide information using the online form 24hrs per day.

You can report information about crime anonymously to Crime Stoppers, a registered charity and community volunteer organisation, by calling 1800 333 000 or via crimestoppersqld.com.au 24hrs per day.

Recently Detectives from Moreton North Criminal Investigation Branch recovered a large amount of property in connection with investigations into burglary offences in the Bribie Island and Caboolture areas.

Police are endeavouring to locate owners for much of the property which does not appear to have been reported as stolen at this time.

If any residents in the Bribie Island area have had mobile telephones, iPads, toolboxes, socket sets and other similar building equipment stolen in recent weeks, and have not reported those matters to Police, it is requested that a complaint be made to Policelink on 131 444. Please quote reference number QP1800193090.

Alternatively, please contact Moreton North CIB on 07 3491 2481, and ask to speak to Plain Clothes Senior Constable Jack Sowden for further information.

If you have information for police, contact Policelink on 131 444 or provide information using the online form 24hrs per day.

You can report information about crime anonymously to Crime Stoppers, a registered charity and community volunteer organisation, by calling 1800 333 000 or via crimestoppersqld.com.au 24hrs per day.

An Initial Flood Watch has been issued for coastal catchments between Gladstone and the New South Wales Border.

The first flood watch, issued by the Bureau of Meteorology this morning, indicates that minor flooding across a large swathe of catchments, including Pine and Caboolture Rivers and their tributaries, is possible.

The Bureau released a video yesterday, detailing the impacts, with Southern States, New South Wales and Victoria, likely to experience the worst of the impacts.

Parts of Queensland will begin to see the effects of the trough from Sunday and into Monday. Rainfall during the past week has primed local catchments for future level rises.

Widespread 24 hour rainfall totals of 30-70mm are possible about coastal catchments south of Gladstone during Sunday and Monday. Isolated heavier falls in the range of 80-180mm are possible each day, these fall are expected from severe thunderstorms embedded in the trough. Severe Thunderstorm Warnings will be issued by the Bureau of Meteorology during the event as required. You can view all Queensland warnings here.

IF IT’S FLOODED, FORGET IT!!!

The warning is as follows:

IDQ20900

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland

Initial Flood Watch for coastal catchments between Gladstone and the New South Wales Border

Issued at 11:12 am EST on Friday 1 December 2017

Flood Watch Number: 1

Minor flooding is possible across the Flood Watch area.

A trough system and an associated band of showers and storms will move into the southwest of the state during Friday, shifting gradually eastwards across the state during the weekend. The associated band of showers and storms will likely clear the coast on Tuesday.

Rainfall during the past week has wetted up some coastal catchments meaning river level rises are likely.

Widespread 24 hour rainfall totals of 30-70mm are possible about coastal catchments south of Gladstone during Sunday and Monday.

Isolated heavier falls in the range of 80-180mm are possible each day with severe thunderstorms. Severe Thunderstorm Warnings will be issued during the event as required.

Minor flooding is possible across the Flood Watch area and isolated heavy rainfall may lead to localised flooding.

Rainfall totals and river level rises are expected to be significantly lower than those experienced in the Wide Bay catchments in October, and certainly nothing comparable to the widespread rainfall and flooding seen in Cyclone Debbie.

The Flood Watch area will be refined as the location of the heaviest rainfall becomes more certain.

Catchments likely to be affected include:

See www.bom.gov.au/qld/warnings to view the current flood warnings for Queensland.

Flood Safety Advice:

This Flood Watch means that people living or working along rivers and creeks should monitor the latest weather forecasts and warnings.

• Remember: If it’s flooded, forget it.

For flood emergency assistance contact the SES on 132 500.

For life threatening emergencies, call Triple Zero (000) immediately.

Current emergency information is available at www.qld.gov.au/alerts.

This advice is also available by dialling 1300 659 219 at a low call cost of 27.5 cents, more from mobile, public and satellite phones.

Warning, rainfall and river information are available at www.bom.gov.au/qld/flood/

Final election counts are still being tallied but it’s becoming clear that the ALP has a stronghold in the Moreton Bay Region and Queensland as a whole.

Six of the nine seats that are within the boundaries of the Moreton Bay Region has been won or retained by Labor candidates.

Morayfield – Mark Ryan (ALP)

Redcliffe – Yvette D’Ath (ALP)

Murrumba – Steven Miles (ALP)

Bancroft – Chris Whiting (ALP)

Pine Rivers – Nikki Boyd (ALP)

Kurwongbah – Shane King (ALP)

The three remaining seats are still undecided:

Pumicestone – Micheal Hoogwaerts (ALP) and Simone Wilson (LNP) are running a very tight race. It could be a long wait to hear the results for this seat.

Everton – Tim Mander (LNP) holds the lead over David Greene (ALP).

Glass House – Andrew Powell (LNP) has the lead over Brent Hampstead (ALP).

Three nights ago, Australians started receiving calls all the way from Cameroon in Central Africa.

Calls were very short allowing practically no opportunity to answer them. Welcome to the call-back scam or as it became known in New Zealand in April this year, the Wangiri scam. Meaning “one ring and cut”.

One of Mackay’s very own police officers received this call in the very early hours of the morning two night’s ago.

This phone scam is so very easy to avoid once you know how it works. Here’s what you need to know:

• You receive a call which is almost impossible to answer at an inconvenient time.  You later identify the missed call – your curiosity peaks. You have a decision to make, do I call the number back or not? Many decide to call back – hence the scam name.
• The scammers establish themselves in locations where they can receive the highest possible yield for their international premium rate number (known as a toll number). This means that the revenue made from your international call to their newly set up phone number is shared between the telephone company and the scammers.
• The rates charged for these return international calls are the highest possible you could imagine. Prepaid users often find themselves with little to no credit left afterwards, other phone users only identify the damage incurred when they receive their next phone bill. Charges incurred during your call back are extremely excessive.
• To make it worse –  if you decide to call back this number, the person who answers your call will do every thing in their power to ensure you stay on the line for as long as possible. People have been told in these call backs that they have won large sums of money, that a family member has died or has been seriously injured – they have even been exposed to conversations of a sexual nature, all in an effort to keep them on the phone for as long as possible – ever increasing the cost to the victim.
• If you have received a call from this process, your details or your phone number have not been compromised. It is believed that the process of identifying phone numbers is an automated process – with every possible phone number combination being identified and called.
• It is expected that very large numbers of these scam calls could be made as a result.

In simpler terms, the scam only works if people call the number back linked to the missed call. If you identify this number from Cameroon as a missed call on your phone – do not call it back. Please understand that the scammers are likely to use different locations and different numbers. The same rules apply – don’t call back international numbers that you do not recognise.

Police are also warning people of a current smishing scam offering you the chance to win a Woolworths gift card if you reply with your personal details. The SMS message even refers to you by your name or nickname.

Smishing is a security attack in which the user is tricked into downloading a Trojan horse, virus or other malware onto their phone or other mobile device. Do not reply to message from unknown callers, confirm details of companies via legitimate sources and never respond to anything immediately.

Another scam involves getting users to click on a video link (either via email or SMS). It may try to lure you by suggesting the video is about you or involves you in some way. Never click on links in emails or messages sent to you by unknown sources.

Remember, you can report scams through A.C.O.R.N. (Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network) here.

To keep up to date with circulating scams, visit Scamwatch here.

If you have information for police, contact Policelink on 131 444 or provide information using the online form 24hrs per day.

You can report information about crime anonymously to Crime Stoppers, a registered charity and community volunteer organisation, by calling 1800 333 000 or via crimestoppersqld.com.au 24hrs per day.

Words: Senior Constable Steve Smith