Has Brisbane forgotten to build for the wet?

This article was published in ABC The Drum 14 January 2011

There's a myth that you often hear about old Brisbane houses, that they were built on stilts for ventilation, so that air could swirl under them in the hot summer months. It's one of those stories people mention every now and then. But it's not true.

The stilts allowed wooden houses to be built into the sides of hills and Brisbane is nothing if not a hilly place. It's part of its charm. The ones holding up the front of my house, for example, are over three metres tall. At the back, they're no more than a foot above the ground. Stilts are practical.

The other major reason for this architectural peculiarity was flooding. In the Brisbane of my youth, water flowed across the concrete slab under the house whenever we had a major downpour. Not masses of water, just a steady wash that had come from the neighbour's yard further up the hill.