Recovery efforts continue after the western Queensland floods inundated the vast catchment of the Channel Country, resulting in stock losses of more than 170,000.
Story Kirsty McKenzie Photo Louise Hoch
WHERE TO GO FOR HELP
It’s the sound of roaring water grazier Louise Hoch can’t get out of her head. After 5 days of constant rain at the end of March, Louise and her husband Dan measured 517mm at The Lake, their home block just east of Quilpie in south-western Queensland and 640mm at Maybe, their other station 60km to the north. Their average annual rainfall is usually 200–300mm.
“The [Bulloo] river came down like a torrent,” Louise says. “Livestock didn’t stand a chance. We saw cattle, sheep, goats, roos and pigs just washing by. Most of our property was 1–2m under water and we still haven’t been able to get around about half of our country to fully assess the damage.”
What the Hochs do know is that they’ve lost maybe 3–3,500 Kalahari goats, lost or damaged 30–40km of fencing and an indeterminate number of sheep and cattle. Louise estimates the stock losses, fences and earthworks will cost about $500,000–$750,000 to repair and it will be a long time before they recover from this catastrophic event, which spread across almost a quarter of the state leaving devastated towns and stations in its wake.
The Hochs are counting their blessings as, while most of the buildings at the bush resort they run on the edge of Lake Houdraman had water lapping around them, damage was minimal and they’re ready to welcome back caravanners, campers ang guests who stay in the restored shearers’ quarters and cottages on their property. “Unfortunately, about 70% of our bookings until August have been cancelled,” Louise says. “People are understandably nervous to come out here. But the fact is most of the roads are open, and the towns and businesses really need the tourists to come back and support them in their recovery.”
The western Queensland floods have inundated the vast catchment of the Channel Country. At the beginning of April, during a visit to Longreach, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a joint state/federal government $105 million disaster relief fund to repair more than 5,000km of exclusion fencing across 12 councils. The fund also provided $7 million for fodder for stranded livestock, grants of up to $75,000 for infrastructure repairs, loans and income support for people who have lost work due to the floods. This was on top of more than $100 million for north Queensland’s flooded regions. Affected people can apply for this assistance through the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRIDA).
From his home on Plevna Downs near Eromanga, former Quilpie shire mayor Stuart Mackenzie has accepted a role as the Queensland government appointed coordinator for the flood recovery effort. “The DPI [Department of Primary Industries] has assessed livestock losses to be 70,000 cattle, 70,000 sheep and 30,000 goats,” he says. “People are still calculating the damage to property and fences, because roads remain cut, and they can’t get to places. We’ve been through the urgent phase of getting feed to stranded livestock and keeping people out of danger, and now we’re moving to recovery and planning the way back. For some the losses are devastating, yet for others, it’s just a beautiful season.”
Stuart describes one station in the Quilpie shire where 2 homesteads were wrecked, 400 cows died, 10km of poly pipe and all and the machinery – utes, bikes and tractors – were destroyed. “There’s plenty of help available, but for them, a $75,000 primary producer’s grant is just a drop in the bucket,” he says. “Their best hope will be the concessional loans of up to $5 million at 2% across 10 years.”
While the Queensland flooding may be top of mind right now, it’s just the latest in what has been an apocalyptic year for climate-related disasters across the country. Vast areas of Victoria and SA are still enduring extreme drought, while widespread flooding occurred in Far North Queensland during January and early February, Tropical Cyclone (TC) Zelia inundated the Pilbara in mid-February (see breakout on De Grey station), ex TC Alfred caused floods across south-east Queensland and northern NSW in March and TC Dianne hit WA’s Kimberley later in March.
About 200km south of Quilpie, the Bulloo River also wreaked havoc on the town of Thargomindah, population 240-odd, when all but 12 homes were inundated. Locals worked feverishly to build a levee bank, but it was unsuccessful, and residents had to be evacuated to makeshift camps at the airport and higher points further from town.
Donna Humphris says she and her husband Phil are among the lucky ones as their Foodworks store, which burnt down in 2022 and only reopened last year, was not as badly impacted as many other businesses in town. “We lost an ice cream fridge and a lot of perishables – fruit and veg, milk and meat – but it’s trivial when compared with other businesses in town,” she says. “They’ve all had water damage, but none of them are insured for flood because at $20,000-plus a year, the premiums are just too high for small outback businesses to afford.”
The Humphris’s “forever home” has been completely “trashed”, and they’ve been advised that it was underinsured by $250,000, but Donna says they will rebuild. “We might just have to build a smaller house,” she says. “We’re not going anywhere and the way people have rallied has just reinforced that feeling.”
AFTER THE WHIRLWIND
Story + Photo Ken Eastwood
Three months after Cyclone Zelia’s eye passed over De Grey station in the Pilbara, owner Mark Bettini still doesn’t know how many animals he’s lost. The cyclone on February 14 brought 190km/h winds, destroying a new machinery shed where horses were sheltering and sending a shipping container hurtling through the air onto 5 weaners, but it was mainly the 800mm of rain in 3 days that caused losses of the Brahman-cross stock.
With many fences destroyed, and almost a third of the property still inaccessible by car due to flooding, mustering was delayed until May, and the manager of De Grey’s outstation Mulyie, Dave Campbell, says how many of the 22,000 stock have died won’t be known until after mustering is completed. “There’d be some big losses,” he says. “There are places you go on De Grey and it just smells like death. The fences are all flattened and there are cattle everywhere.”
Fixing some fences was a priority, but many won’t be fully restored this year, despite station crew members and contractors spending weeks on the job. However, De Grey, 100km north of Port Hedland, is now a picture in lime green, with buffel, soft spinifex, Roebourne Plains and Mitchell grasses all providing great feed to the stock that are still there. “It’s looking pretty good – the cattle are fat,” Dave says. Buildings around the homestead complex now have clear water views of the De Grey River, because so many trees were stripped or destroyed. In the days after the cyclone, Mark and SES volunteers used helicopters to move cattle to higher ground, and drop in hay. And Mark, who has gone through several cyclones, says he knows they did what they could for the stock. “We’ve done a lot to save them. We saw around 100 deaths, but more could have been lost.”
There’s deep emotion and exhaustion in Geoff Pike’s voice as he describes the destruction of Ago Vires, the remote-area energy construction firm he has spent the past 2 decades building with the Otaola family in Thargomindah. The former plumber now employs almost 50 people, 12 of them at his home base in Thargo. Geoff and his crew spearheaded the levee-building effort, but eventually the whole town had to evacuate.
Geoff says it’s hard to put a figure on his losses but estimates, with damage to the building and the loss of tools, merchandise and stock, it would be close to $1 million. “Right now, we’re focused on getting people back onto their land, if not into their houses. The last thing we want is for Thargo to end up a ghost town. We need to get the businesses up and running again.”
To this end, Geoff created a Virtual Purchase Facebook post, with a list of all the local businesses that have been impacted. Donors can message their business of choice and deposit as much or as little as they can afford directly into their bank accounts. “It’s brought about $120,000 into the town,” he says. “Every bit counts.”
Fridge for a Friend is another grassroots initiative, kickstarted by Anthony and Gerda Glasson of Thargomindah’s Picarilli Merinos. They set out to replace every damaged fridge and washing machine in Thargomindah, Eulo, Hungerford and some rural properties. By the end of the first week of April, their Facebook campaign had achieved this goal by matching donors with local electrical stores and they’d moved on to doing the same for everyone in Adavale. By early May, they’d replaced 96 fridges, 87 washing machines and 29 bar fridges from a total of almost $180,000 in donations and an unknown quantity of pro-bono hours from electrical store proprietors, transport operators and the Glassons’ friends and family.
Not all heroes wear capes, and some fly helicopters, specifically the R22s flown by the muster pilots, who rallied to rescue people at Adavale on the afternoon of March 27. Cristina Zito and her husband Les Rea waited anxiously through the day as the water rose around their home and premises of the Elegant Emu patisserie Cristina runs. “Our building used to be the hospital, so it’s on the highest ground in town,” she says. “It had never had water through it, not even in 1974, which was the biggest flood on record before this. But this time it came right through the house, and we were trapped. It was calf deep when we looked out the window and saw our cop, Senior Constable Chris Seng, and another local, Anthony Holloway, in a tinny coming to rescue us. Those muster pilots were also real heroes. They rescued people from the water and rooftops and took them to a hill.” By day’s end, Adavale’s entire population of 25 had been evacuated to Quilpie. It was 11 days until the road reopened and a council bus took residents back to confront the damage and start the cleanup. Cristina says her losses were small compared to other residents and she’s keen to rebuild. “My equipment damage was minimal,” she says. “The flood might have damaged the house, but it didn’t wash away my cooking skills, so I hope we can reopen before the [tourist] season ends.”
Cristina adds that while damage assessment and insurance claims are slow to process, the town has been overwhelmed by support from volunteers. “We’ve had visits from Frontier Services, GIVIT and Lifeline,” she says. “Mary O’Brien, the founder of Are You Bogged Mate? organised mops and insect repellent, both things we desperately needed.”
Help is also available in the form of on-the-ground support from organisations such as Rural Aid. CEO John Warlters explains that Rural Aid typically works in longer term recovery, providing everything from prepaid Visa cards and counselling services to volunteer teams. “They’re mainly retired tradies from metro and regional centres,” he says. “We match their skills to the tasks needed.”
The Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR) also focuses on medium to long-term recovery. Nina O’Brien, the organisation’s disaster, resilience and recovery lead, explains that the organisation typically becomes involved when the initial flurry of activity and attention has moved on. “Donated funds support local community-based not-for-profit organisations,” she says. “During a disaster in remote locations, the existing structural inequalities are magnified and local volunteers are usually suffering losses themselves. Recovery can be slower and more expensive, which is why these communities need support long into the future.”
FRRR funds are used to strengthen the fabric of impacted communities, whether it’s by fostering social connection through events or restoring community buildings, such as halls, sports facilities and playground equipment. It also supports festivals and arts events to reactivate local economies and attract tourists back to the towns. “We also have a strong focus on building skills and knowledge, so communities are better prepared to handle future events,” Nina says. “NEMA [National Emergency Management Agency] data shows that every dollar invested in preparedness saves $9.60 in recovery.”
Farm Angels founder and chief angel Tash Johnston says its support is also long-term and sometimes the organisation remains in contact with people it has helped years after the event. “Initially, we help with pre-paid Visa cards and wellbeing conversations,” she says. “However, we’re there for the long haul and keep in touch with our farmers through our Farmer Journey program, with hampers, gifts and cards for birthdays, Christmas and other special events.” Tash says the flood applications are now starting to arrive. “This year, 76% of the assistance we’ve provided is SA-drought related,” she says. “Now we’re experiencing more applications from Victoria as drought grips the Snowies.”
If there is an upside to this devastation, it’s that when tourists do return, they will experience the outback in bloom as desert flowers will be abundant. Lake Eyre will also be a spectacle. Phil van Wegen, who runs scenic flight company Arid Air out of Marree, says the first waters from the Diamantina channels are already entering the lake. “It will be July/August before Cooper Creek finally makes its way down,” he says. “There will be a huge inundation of birdlife. Already we’re getting a lot of enquiries, so for us there is a silver lining.”
Back at Eromanga, Stuart Mackenzie echoes Louise Hoch’s plea for people to visit. “If you’re planning on going to the west, now is the time,” he says. “The secondary impact of the floods is the effect on businesses: the trucking companies and stock agents have lost all their work, and the supermarkets, pubs and tourism operators need your business desperately. Donations are always welcome, whether in cash or in kind from tradies with their own caravans who come and help clean up and do repairs. The countryside will never look better, the locals need support. Staying away is the worst thing anyone could do.”
This story is from Issue #161
Outback Magazine: June/July 2025
