‘Miles of destruction’: Heartbroken cattle farmer reveals fallout of outback floods

Outback Queenslanders are picking up the pieces after they were smashed by an unrelenting inland tsunami over the weekend. This is their story.

A heartbroken Queensland cattle farmer says she is “grieving” after devastating flood waters swept through her outback property leaving “miles of destruction and mud”.

Parts of regional and remote Queensland have recorded more than 650mm of rain, said to be the worst in living memory, leading to entire communities being submerged.

Adavale’s Gundry Cattle Co has had multimillion dollars worth of infrastructure and livestock “swept up and discarded like scrap metal and rubbish” by floodwaters caused by immense rainfall from ex-tropical cyclone Dianne.

Gundry Cattle Co. Photo: Emily Green

Emily Green, the daughter of Jacque Green who owns Gundry Cattle Co, posted a video to social media capturing the devastating “grief” currently impacting her home.

The video captured rapid flowing flood waters that had inundated crops and infrastructure, along with a helicopter and B-double trucks submerged in murky flood waters.

Emily Green.

It showed the endless rain that continued to batter down on already flooded lands.

“I didn’t realise you could feel such immense grief for innate objects and moments in time. Grief for the places that felt like home, smells and sights that transported you back to alternate realities,” Ms Green said.

Land owned by Gundry Cattle Co devastated by immense rainfall from ex-tropical cyclone Dianne. Photo: Emily Green

Ms Green described the aftermath of the receding floodwaters as “miles of destruction”.

In the past week, small towns of Adavale and Jundah have had more than 40 rescues from swift water crews.

“The water came and went, washing away every milestone, memory and moment in its wake. Leaving behind inches of mud and miles of destruction,” she said.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Jonathan How said the western corner of the state could record another 50mm on Tuesday and Wednesday following more isolated thunderstorms.

Ms Green said she was “begging” mother nature to give outback Queenslanders a “break.”

“The heartbreak for the hundreds of years of graziers’ hard work poured into the land gone before me,” she said.

“The realisation of the significant rebuilding, finances and effort that has to eventuate to ensure stability for the futures of our next generation born of the land.

“Our Western Queenslanders are begging her now to give us a break.”

Flood waters have ravaged Gundry Cattle Co properties in Adavale. Photo: Emily Green

Premier David Crisafulli has previously said Adavale and the township of Jundah were two locations of top concern.

In Thargomindah 70 people have been moved from their homes to a council evacuation centre, about 1100km west of Brisbane, as the Bulloo River continues to rise.

Meanwhile, in central Queensland, the regional towns of Jericho, Aramac and Barcaldine, west of Longreach, were all surrounded by floodwaters.

Ms Green said it was a conflicting time, feeling gratitude that family and friends are all safe, combined with the heartbreak of losing so much.

“While you can look at the damages through a financial sense and recognise that loss in itself is a significant impact, the real grief lies within the understanding of the years and years it took us and the generations gone before us to build their properties and herds to the points they were at and realise we essentially have to start over,” she said.

“This, coupled with the reality of losing our homes and safe spaces, is a pretty big pill to swallow and one that we will have to help our fellow graziers manage and handle.

“The mental health impact this disaster will have on our small communities is going to be massive and ripple through generations, we need to look out for one another now more than ever, so don’t hesitate to reach out to your mates that are impacted by this and see how they are in the wake of this.”

Emily Green in happier times.

Ms Green said outback communities needed help.

“We need the country as well as politicians and organisations to get behind us and help us rebuild and get back on our feet,” she said.

“Everybody is heartbroken and devastated, but in typical country fashion all are in good spirits and having a joke with one another to keep the mood as light as possible.

“We are a pretty switched on bunch out here and while yes we knew the risks of living here between droughts and floods, we never thought in our lifetimes we would see a flood of this size impact our homes.

“The last flood even close to this scale was in the 70s and this event has now surpassed most of those level records. We knew it could happen, but obviously always wished it never would.”

Meanwhile South West farmer, Brendan Murray has lost 6000 sheep worth about $1m and up to 60km of fence line on his Eromanga property.

“It’s not good, we had unprecedented flood water (more than) 450mm at the house and country that’s never been underwater had a metre of water on it, we moved stock to places we thought was safe and they still got washed away,” he said.

“Where I am now we’d never lost sheep before, but it was just too wet, too big for too long.

“I never thought I’d see anything like this, it is harrowing. I’ve got my son walking behind me shooting sheep because there’s not much we can do for them.”

Flooding at Brendan Murray’s farm.

Mr Murray is just one of dozens of residents in and around Quilpie who have been left to pick up the pieces after a flood which left tens of thousands of livestock dead and businesses and homes waterlogged.

Record breaking rainfall began in Quilpie 1000km west of Brisbane on Sunday evening, with initial forecasts predicting 5-6mm of rain. However since then more than 500mm of rain has hit the region.

Mr Murray said he had seen all manner of weather events, from storms to droughts, but lamented he’d never “seen anything like this”.

“It’s just a great big mud flat covered in dead kangaroos and sheep, down the bottom the water is still 2m deep, it’s finally falling but I don’t think there’s much we can do for anything down there,” he said.

“No one knows what we are going to do, we’ve never had to deal with this before, the area where the sheep are washed up we won’t have access to for four to six weeks and hopefully by then it won’t be quite as smelly.

The flooding has been devastating.

“We have a little mob of sheep ahead and if we can get them 200m or 300m away they might live providing it doesn’t rain (Tuesday), because if it rains we will lose them as well.

“We’ve got probably got 60km fence on the ground, and that will take two to three years to repair some of the fencing out here you can only do in dry years and you’re looking at $4000 a kilometre.

“Cattle losses aren’t too bad we think, we are getting some cattle bogged but none washed away, the ground is that wet they are breaking through some of that harder country and bogging to their briskets.”

Originally published as ‘Miles of destruction’: Heartbroken cattle farmer reveals fallout of outback floods