Brisbane (Queensland) – Mycobacterium

The bacteria Mycobacterium abscessus has been detected in Brisbane’s water supply and is resistent to chlorine. “Mycobacterium abscessus, … is very resistant to antibiotics, we have found in the water supply and we have linked it to patients through their homes, and this is a fairly important finding because this infection I think it is increasing. We are seeing more of it and it is very difficult to treat, and in previous studies no one has really found a lot of it in the
water supply… In Queensland, there are probably 300 new cases of mycobacterial lung disease every year. You have to be susceptible to it and this can mean people whose immune system’s not working well; or tall, thin middle aged or elderly women; men with a history of smoking and lung disease, and people with cystic fibrosis.”
https://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2011/3272878.htm#transcript

2016?: Brisbane (Queensland) – Lead

“…In Brisbane (Queensland), a study detected lead in 15% of harvested rainwater samples at concentrations ranging from 0.01 ppm to 10.0 ppm (with one sample having a concentration of 85.0 ppm) [20]. In Sydney, Newcastle (New South Wales) and Esperance (Western Australia), the situation was similar. Water sampled from rain water tanks in Sydney contained lead up to 0.35 ppm [22], up to 0.16 ppm in Esperance [23], and up to 5.77 ppm in Newcastle [24]. A tank in the town of Karumba in the Shire of Carpentaria, northern Queensland contained up to 100 ppm lead [14].

These results demonstrate a need for future epidemiological studies to determine whether there is a public health risk from these detected levels.”

Lead, Zinc, Copper, and Cadmium Content of Water from South Australian Rainwater Tanks
Chirhakarhula E. Chubaka  ID , Harriet Whiley ID , John W. Edwards and Kirstin E. Ross

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 1551; doi:10.3390/ijerph15071551