Flooding seen from the air around Thargomindah, Queensland. Photo: AAP Image/Supplied by Anthony Glasson
The full extent of livestock losses from widespread flooding in a sodden inland Queensland won’t be known until water levels finally ease.
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But an expert has warned the natural disaster would have a lasting impact on the industry, with more than 100,000 cattle, sheep and goats already known to be lost.
Helicopter pilots have been kept busy delivering feed and rescuing animals when they are not evacuating inundated communities in western Queensland.
Flooding twice the size of Victoria has inundated the state’s inland regions.
It is considered the worst flooding event in more than 50 years, triggering fears of widespread livestock losses.
“There’s been some submissions put in and they’re already over 100,000 losses,” AgForce sheep, wool and goat president Boyd Webb said on April 2.
“This is going to have a lasting effect on those businesses for a long period of time.”
Mr Webb said for some graziers the losses would equate to “losing your job”.
“It’ll be like you’ve been unemployed for 12 months for some people, or longer,” he said.
“For different individuals, it will be very, very tough, in what was already a tough landscape.”
At Charleville in Queensland are bales of hay ready to be distributed to livestock stranded in the floods. Photo: AAP Image/Supplied by Queensland Government.
The remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Dianne brought widespread rainfall across three states by last Wednesday morning, including already flood-hit areas.
The army was on standby as local helicopter pilots do their best to fly supplies and livestock fodder throughout the impacted region.
“They’re like bees but they’re doing a great job and we thank them for all the work they’re doing,” Fedetal Nationals Leader David Littleproud told ABC Radio from Quilpie.
“The stock losses here and right up towards Winton are going to be enormous,” he said.
There are fears some graziers will lose 100 per cent of their stock.
The full extent of the damage won’t be known until the flooding eases, a process that could take weeks.
“We’re talking about a massive loss ... in relation to their livestock, cattle, sheep and goats,” Queensland Emergency Services Minister Dan Purdie said.
“Some of those families and some of those farmers have been on the land for a long time — it might take a long time to recover.”
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has already turned his attention to the aftermath.
Personal hardship assistance has been activated along with concessional loans and freight subsidies to help primary producers in a string of western Queensland communities.
“We do have a crisis when it comes to the impact of agriculture in a large part of our state,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“You are dealing with many, many hundreds of thousands of acres of country that will be inundated” and thousands of kilometres of fencing destroyed, he said.
“You’ve got somewhere in the order of a million head of cattle, a million sheep who are impacted at the moment and we could see stock losses into the hundreds of thousands.”
The premier said the disaster would test some communities.
“Agriculture underpins these communities, and they are going to need help,” he said.
“In the short term, we have to get fodder to try, wherever humanly possible, to keep stock alive.
“In the longer term, we have to make sure that we can help these communities rebuild.”
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