There’s Something About Mary

On the night of 26 April this year, Kaili Parker-Price was driving home towards the family farm, just outside the little town of Imbil in Queensland's Mary Valley. The energetic and public-spirited Parker-Price had been at a meeting of Networking With Mary, a group intent on promoting the region to make it as well known as the Hunter or the Barossa.

The Mary Valley is truly beautiful: its fertile alluvial flatlands and undulating hills make it some of the finest dairy country in Australia, the sort of country that appears on TV ads for butter. Strong rain in the surrounding ranges drains into a series of creeks which flow into the Mary River. Sometimes heavy and sustained summer falls test the water system; in years past, towns downstream, especially Gympie, have been flooded. The last major flood was in 1999.