Editorial: Local heroes’ finest hour came in Townsville floods

Australian Defence Force’s 2RAR (Amphib) saved countless lives as the floods rose in Townsville.

QUEENSLAND – beautiful one day, exasperating the next.

We are blessed with one of the most extraordinary climates on the planet.

Not for nothing do we call ourselves the Sunshine State, with many locations basking in the glow of 300-plus days of sun every year.

Warm winters and generally tolerable summers – along the coastal fringe at least – make us the envy of the southern states, while images of sun-kissed white beaches and lush tropical forests attract tourists from all corners of the globe.

But the glossy brochures and alluring online images hide a complex, conflicting and often cruel truth.

Our weather can switch from benign to brutal with terrifying speed, as we’ve witnessed repeatedly over the decades.

And in the latest manifestation of this climatic craziness, parts of north Queensland have been hit by a prolonged deluge of biblical proportions.

Some areas around Townsville were drenched in 1892mm of rain in 10 days.

That is 1.89m, or six feet two inches – 1½ times the city’s annual rainfall, and three times Melbourne’s yearly total – in a week and a half.

As the rain finally began to ease and the floodwaters receded, new threats emerged. Mould and funghi spread through homes, while Queensland Health officials have warned of an impending plague of mosquitoes, potentially carrying debilitating disease such as dengue fever and Ross River virus.

More than 1000 homes have been severely damaged or left completely uninhabitable. More than 5000 cars have been written off. Insurance companies have so far logged $100 million-plus in claims, a figure certain to swell many times over as the full extent of damage becomes apparent. The economic impact on a region which has been reeling with high unemployment in the wake of the mining construction boom ending could be felt for years to come.

Hundreds of thousands of cattle weakened from a severe drought are feared to have died in record-breaking floods in Queensland. Picture:AFP PHOTO/ Anthony Anderson

And Mother Nature had one more particularly vicious punch to deliver this week. In the vast expanses of cattle country in the state’s northwest, graziers have waited and hoped and prayed for years for the relief of rainfall to refresh parched paddocks.

Instead, they watched with heartbreaking incredulity and horror as raging floodwaters swept across their land, carrying cows to their deaths along with other livestock as well as native animals.

As they feared for their herds over a Big Dry, stretching for up to seven years in some places, the one thing they could never have imagined was their animals drowning. But the latest estimates put the toll at more than 300,000 head of cattle.

Questions are now being asked about the readiness and response of authorities including Townsville City Council and State Government-owned SunWater which operates the Ross River Dam – issues that will quite rightly be examined by an independent inquiry.

What we do know, however, is that the consequences of this catastrophe could have been much worse – and that they would have been much worse but for the largely unsung efforts of the locally-based Australian Defence Force’s 2RAR (Amphib) who saved countless lives.

In the black of night on Sunday/Monday, they rescued more than 400 frightened and grateful residents – a third of them children – as the water rose by a metre an hour.

Trained for the challenges of far-flung lands, one of their finest hours came right here on their doorstep – in their community, among their people.

We’re lucky to have these local heroes.

Building some public scrutiny

Photos of Mick Barfield's truck which he displayed around the time he was taking JM Kelly Builders to court over the money he was owed as a subcontractor

FINALLY, some light of public official scrutiny will be shone on the collapse of construction company JM Kelly Builders Pty Ltd. The State Government – through industry regulator, the Queensland Building and Construction Commission – has committed $200,000 to fund a public court examination into the firm’s implosion. It is a welcome development.

The company and other entities in the Rockhampton-based JM Kelly Group have featured prominently in the “Back Our Subbies” campaign launched this week by The Courier-Mail and the state’s 13 other major daily newspapers.

We’ve exposed the need for urgent action to protect and help subcontractors when building companies fail.

An estimated $500 million is left owing to 7000 subbies in more than 50 major collapses since 2013. The impacts on these hardworking small-business people are immense, not only in financial hardship, but also in relationship breakdowns and health problems.

The public probe into the $52 million JM Kelly collapse comes after the news of similar examination of the cases of the Cullen group, which failed owing creditors $45 million, and the $5.9 million failure of Queensland One Homes. It will enable liquidators to delve more deeply, and possibly uncover information which could then support civil claims and criminal cases.

Hopefully, it will also further illuminate the knowledge and actions of those in the State Government who continued to deal with the JM Kelly Group – transferring 21 contracts to JM Kelly Builders after the $31 million collapse of JM Kelly Project Builders in 2016 – despite warnings from contractors.

The public examination is an important next step but, rest assured, The Courier-Mail and our sister publications will continue to investigate and campaign on this important issue, including calling for the establishment of a properly-resourced police taskforce to tackle any illegal behaviour in a sector critical to the state’s economy.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Sam Weir, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details are available at www.couriermail.com.au/help/contact-us