Scott Morrison, Bridget McKenzie visit Nolan Meats following floods

Prime Minister Scott Morrison took a surprise tour of Gympie’s biggest family business days after it began operating again following a catastrophic flood inundation that has cost the company $15 million. Full story, photos, video.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison praised Nolan Meats’ return to production days after the worst flood in its history as a “resurrection story” on Thursday when he made a surprise visit to Gympie, meeting Mayor Glen Hartwig and touring Nolans with Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien.

Mr Morrison was also joined by Infrastructure Minister Bridget McKenzie to meet with Nolan Meats’ directors Terry, Tony and Michael Nolan, tour the site and shake hands with several of the workers on what was a hot and humid day.

Nolans suffered $15 million in damages and losses from the February 2022 flood, something they say was made worse by roadworks associated with the $1 billion Gympie Bypass.

Photos: Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits Nolan Meats

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Mr Morrison’s visit opened with a debrief inside the company’s flood-ravaged offices.

Mr Nolan laid out for Mr Morrison not only the efforts of the Nolan’s team to have the factory running five days after the floodwaters peaked to his concerns about how work on the Bypass contributed to the factory’s inundation.

Chief among these were that the road outside the factory was lowered to accommodate the highway, creating a “moat”, and that an historical access road used for flood evacuations was made impassable.

The State Government’s Transport and Main Roads said Tuesday it was aware of Mr Nolan’s concerns.

A TMR spokesman said the Bypass had been designed “to ensure that there is no worsening of impacts from floodwaters”.

Prime Minster Scott Morrison visits Nolan Meats, Gympie, after devastating floods. Wide Bay MP Llew O'Brien addresses the media following an extensive tour of the facility. Picture: Patrick Woods.

During the briefing, held in an office stripped of carpet and under repair owing to floodwaters going more than a metre up the walls, Mr Nolan said TMR and Nolan Meats had a “constructive” meeting Thursday morning.

Mr Morrison then toured the facility, including the multimillion-dollar cold storage centre built with the help of $4.97m in Federal funding granted to the company.

He shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with several of Nolan’s staff, including marketing leader Jim Bougoure, and crew members Rob George, Rick Dennis, Cameron Caldwell, and Jimmy Phan.

Following the hour-long tour Mr Morrison spoke to the assembled media throng, calling the company’s return a “resurrection story” made in record time.

He said it was their “attention to the little things” that had impressed him.

“To lift the spirits, the fact all of these areas have been washed down, that the lawns have been mowed, these details are about lifting the spirits of a very strong work force here at Nolan Meats,” Mr Morrison said.

“This is a resurrection story we’re seeing right here and it happened in absolute record time.”

He congratulated the Nolan family’s commitment to its workforce in the face of what he described in the Lismore and Northern Rivers as “an inland tsunami”.

“I’m sure the people in Gympie felt a bit like this as well over a week ago … an inland tsunami just destroying everything in its wake.”

The Prime Minister said he had spoken to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk Thursday afternoon

“We both agreed there has been a tremendously co-operative spirit between the Queensland Government, local governments across Queensland that have been affected, and the Federal Government,” he said.

He said he would be meeting with the Governor-General about making a national emergency declaration, which has been criticised as being too slow to materialise.

Ms Palaszczuk rejected Mr Morrison’s offer to make the declaration Thursday morning, saying it was now too late for a declaration and it should have been done a week ago.

Mr Morrison said Ms Palaszczuk “had every opportunity to write me and ask me to do that a week ago and she didn’t choose to do that”.

“I think there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding about what the state of emergency declaration entails,” he said.

“It does not impact on the flow of funding and support or defence force assistance, that is all flowing.”

He said the declaration helped with “managing the regulatory issues in a more streamlined way”.

Mr Morrison’s response was one of only two questions he answered before departing the factory.

He said catastrophe assistance for Gympie and Maryborough was “being assessed”.

“The normal flood response has been provided and has been done to the ‘T’ in terms of the request made of the Commonwealth made by the Queensland Government,” Mr Morrison said.