How wet weather causes havoc with business owners along the Bruce Highway

Wet weather is causing major headaches for business owners along the Bruce Highway.

Rob Jesse of Jessie’s Cardwell Pies, a mobile van on the Cardwell foreshore, Bruce Highway, overlooking Hinchinbrook Island. Picture: Cameron Bates

Cardwell baker Robert Jesse has operated a pie van in the town for 30 years and says the highway closes at least once a fortnight from flooding in the wet season.

He knows all too well the impacts of crashes, floods, roadworks and driver behaviour on Cardwell, which the Bruce Highway runs through.

“There’s no back way around unless you take the road outside the mountains,” he said.

“Every time they close the road it does impact our business, big time. Especially when it’s a fatal (crash) because they close the road for half a day, I just pack up and go home.”

Mr Jesse said road closures from floods would typically occur once a fortnight during the wet season, and accidents about once a month.

However he’s welcomed significant improvements to the highway over the decades, which has seen the length of road closures drop.

“They built the road up a metre or so. It hasn’t stopped the floods, because you won’t ever do that, but the road closure doesn’t last as long,” he said.

“One time the road would be closed two or three weeks, now it’s three or four days, a week at the most.”

Work on the Bruce Highway between Cardwell and Ingham on Friday. Picture: Cameron Bates

However many parts of the highway that’s been built up above flood levels are effectively creating dams as there’s nowhere for water to flow underneath, Mr Jesse says, pointing to Meunga Creek as an example.

“The approaches to all of our bridges should be that, bridges. That way, when the flood comes up and breaks the bank, it’s got somewhere to go,” he said.

“They don’t realise how much rain we get in an hour – a metre of rain an hour – and how quickly it comes up.”

Further north, an Innisfail service station along the highway in the centre of town has been flooded dozens of times according to employee William Minter.

“The pipes need to be completely dug up and fixed, either they’re too small or they’re just too bloody old,” the Metro Petroleum worker said.

“We’ve had our shop underwater 50 times, every shop here.”

Sunny Karsala, who works at the Ampol fuel station in Silkwood, said water drainage was a problem for his highway roadstop as well.

“We will get flooded but on the other side (of the road) you won’t see a single drop of water. The drainage is not cleaned up on a regular basis,” he said.