Flood clean up begins of flood ravaged Cardwell
Questions have been raised about how a Far North council has managed a Cardwell flood disaster as residents now start out on the long road to recovery by moving mountains of waterlogged possessions and mucking out homes coated in mud.
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Cardwell residents have started the long road to recovery by moving mountains of waterlogged possessions and clearing wall-to-wall mud from homes after a devastating flood event that’s now caused sewage overflow at Port Hinchinbrook and the destruction of road infrastructure.
About 70 homes were inundated last Sunday night when more than 1100mm of rain dumped on the small coastal town, 145km south of Cairns.
A handful of homes on Tradewinds Dr in the beleaguered Port Hinchinbrook estate on Friday were still cut off after the bridge over One Mile Creek was virtually washed away last Monday.
Cassowary Coast Regional Council has issued a public health notice warning residents of sewage spewing into storm water outflows from the $19m sewage treatment plant that opened just one week before the flood.
Fishing and other water activities have been strictly discouraged.
Within the town of Cardwell, residents of hardest hit areas are slowly coming to terms with the gravity of their loss while enduring poor mobile phone coverage, limited fresh food supplies, partial power outages and mud caked wall-to-wall through their homes.
On Wednesday a council decision forcing elderly residents to cart water damaged possessions to a central dump point at Brasenose St caused additional stress for already rattled flood victims.
Roma St resident Ian Rowe’s property was trashed by water that surged through his home leaving behind utter devastation that’s yet to be cleaned up.
“I’m trying to find someone to give me a hand to get all the mud out and now you have the weekend coming and nothing going to happen,” the 67-year-old said.
“The SES are pretty flat out and they can’t do anything until my (insurance) assessor gives them the go ahead.”
Mr Rowe’s frustration turned to anger when he was told the Cassowary Coast Council was “too broke” to go door-to-door removing damaged goods from the kerb.
“How the hell do you get there without a car and trailer?” he said.
“That is just rubbish, you can’t do that to people, it’s disgusting, whoever made that decision should be sacked on the spot.
⛈ï¸The chance of thunderstorms continues across most of north and parts of central #QLD on Saturday as well as around the NSW border in the south west. Further heavy falls are likely in the north from severe storms.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) February 7, 2025
Forecasts and Warnings: https://t.co/xhhEZNgX0vpic.twitter.com/JihaWsiRxp
“During Yasi, we could just leave it by kerb, it was no problem.”
On Friday council reversed the decision after funds were made available through Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.
Council has now released a timetable beginning on Friday and extending until next Thursday informing residents when flood damaged items will be picked up from the kerb.
Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto described the tropical low responsible for intense rainfall as unprecedented and a full recovery at Cardwell and Port Hinchinbrook can only happen with all three levels of government working for the greater good of those people affected.
“I have never seen a weather system that caused flooding in all three local government areas and the amount of rain that fell in Cardwell in that eight hour period has created damage that will last for years to come,” he said.
“We are trying to restore road access not only to the Bruce Highway and local roads and the Cassowary Coast Council will be doing everything in their power to restore access to Tradewinds Dr.
“If we have a council that can pull out all the stops (that will) help with the clean up and people can get back on with their lives.”
Clitheroe St resident Tracy Ebert said that was slowly starting to happen but she expected it would be a long time before her and husband’s life returned to normal.
“It’s really stressful, but you can’t fall apart now,” she said.
“When the mud army came, which was a whole heap of locals, they were amazing and they just got into it and they dumped everything.
“The SES came in and the fireys from Mareeba hosed the whole house out.”
The couple and two dogs have been camping on the first floor after almost 2m of water rushed through the ground floor living room and kitchen last Sunday.
They are without hot water were relying on generator power on Friday.
“It’s not ideal but we have a dry bed,” Ms Ebert said.
“Because we have two dogs we can’t go anywhere else.
“My daughter went to Tully and got groceries and we are OK with food and people have been bringing us meals, but the mood in town is low.”
On Thursday a joint state and federal flood recovery package made $1m available to the Cassowary Coast Council along with Burdekin, Charters Towers, Hinchinbrook, Palm Island, Townsville, Whitsunday and Yarrabah councils.
Cardwell business owner Christine Ihle was not impacted by the flood but saw so many in her community in desperate of support.
She banded together with Simon Hallam, Andrew Crow. Les Everett and got to work.
“We joined forces and got a really good crew together and started going from house-to-house cleaning them out,” she said.
On Friday she was at the home of an 84-year-old woman who had lost everything.
“It was very overwhelming for her,” she said.
The nurse by trade also questioned how the disaster had been managed by the Cassowary Coast Council after being told by council there was no money in the budget for kerbside waste pick-ups.
“The kerb side collection is just a given in a disaster like this, I think their disaster management protocols are a bit lacking,” she said.
A community recovery hub at Brasenose Street will continue to help flood impacted residents with grant applications and until Tuesday, February 11.
But with more rain expected this weekend as a monsoon trough bears down on the coast between Tully and Ayr, Mr Dametto said the region is not yet “out of the woods”.
The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of six hourly falls of 140–200mm and isolated falls up to 250mm in 24-hours could occur which will increase the risk of dangerous flash flooding of already saturated ground and full river catchments.
Cassowary Coast Mayor Teresa Millwood was contacted for comment.
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Originally published as Flood clean up begins of flood ravaged Cardwell
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