Burnett Flood update: Burnett and Bunya Hwys closed, BP Dam spilling
Despite rain easing, the flood threat is continuing across the Burnett, with major highways expected to be cut for days, food shortages and significant infrastructure damage expected. SEE THE FULL LIST OF ROAD CLOSURES:
South Burnett
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The rain has eased across most of the Burnett region, but the flood threat remains.
Rivers and creeks across the Burnett region are swollen and continuing to rise, with major routes now cut off and unlikely to open for days.
The weather system that has brought so much destruction to the state has moved south of the region, and is expected to ease in the coming hours.
But its effects will linger for days to come, with the South Burnett Council warning residents to stay off the roads.
“The Local Disaster Management Group advises that the South Burnett has received 50mm to 125mm across the region last night with significant run off occurring,” a council spokesman said.
“Currently a number of streams such as Barambah Creek have dropped, however significant rises are expected later today and are already occurring upstream.”
Bjelke-Petersen Dam was expected to reach 130 per cent capacity at 6pm tonight, and will continue to spill for some time.
The council warned any road closure will remain in place due to the change in conditions.
“The Bunya Highway and Burnett Highways will see water levels rise again and are not expected to reopen until Monday afternoon at the earliest,” the spokesman said.
“Krebs Bridge on the Bunya Highway has visible damage and may not reopen until later in the week. Further updates will be provided as roads and bridges are inspected for damage.”
SEE THE FULL LIST OF ROAD CLOSURES:
Cherbourg Council informed residents the Murgon IGA had run out of bread and the main road into town was expected to be cut again today.
“Big Shot Bridge is expected to go under again today – please don’t drive into town or you may get stuck there,” a spokesman warned.
The North Burnett Regional Council has started the process of cleaning up after unprecedented rainfall.
Crews are assessing damage to roads, and are prioritising highways and majors roads with local roads to be assessed in the coming days.
The council also reminded landowners to leave repairs to council workers.
“Council urges property owners to refrain from undertaking any repairs to damaged roads,” a spokesman said.
“We can appreciate how frustrating this will be for some landowners, having experiencing significant damage to property twice in just a few weeks.
“However, it is important that council undertakes detailed assessments so that we can report to the State Government and advocate for assistance to help cover the cost of repairs due to a natural disaster.”
In the tiny town of Dallarnil, north of Biggenden, the clean up is again underway just weeks after it was swamped by rainfall.
Horse stud owner Candice Faul lives just 5km north of the local state school, and said the rain was unrelenting.
Ms Faul said the flooding was worse in her area than the last event in January.
“When it comes to the volume of rain – this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” she said.
“We’ve been here for 14 years and we’ve been through the other flood and this is the worst, it was just such a short amount of time.”
Deputy chair of the Local Disaster Management Group and councillor Melinda Jones said morale was low for the residents of Dallarnil, with many having lost everything they own due to back-to-back flooding disasters.
“With the last flooding event some of the residents of Dallarnil had to relocate what they could salvage into these three sheds, because they couldn’t go into their houses, and now these sheds have sadly been inundated by floodwaters,” she said.
“So some people have now lost absolutely everything.
“It’s been a traumatic experience for these residents to have this happen a second time round, but we have some psychological first aid support on the ground helping them.”
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