Hinchinbrook flood disaster 2025: Council, state government count cost of ‘perfect storm’
The Hinchinbrook region has begun counting the cost caused by the “perfect storm” as talk turns to potential buybacks and re-building homes ravaged by the floods.
Townsville
Don't miss out on the headlines from Townsville. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The Hinchinbrook region has begun counting the cost caused by the “perfect storm”, but say the price will be “massive” as talk turns to potential buybacks and re-building homes ravaged by the floods.
Deputy Mayor Mary Brown, who alongside Mayor Ramon Jayo has been working hard behind the scenes to lessen the human suffering of the disaster, said the event “has been higher than any event that we have historically encountered”.
“Some members of our community have had a flood impact where they’ve never experienced it before so that’s brought on a whole new level of challenges for our community,” she said.
Ms Brown, also president of the Hinchinbrook Chamber of Commerce, said the business community had also been hit hard.
“Some of our businesses have never experienced flood impact before.”
She said Hinchinbrook had suffered the “perfect storm” of losing power, communications, road and rail access, monsoonal rain, flooding and intermittent loss of the potable water supply.
Ms Brown said they were yet to quantify the damage “but we do know that it is going to be massively significant”.
“I’ve been involved in this space for about 20 years and this is the largest impact I’ve ever seen.”
Ms Brown, speaking during a news conference with Minister for Local Government and Water and Minister for Fire, Disaster Recovery and Volunteers Ann Leahy, said the state and federal governments had been “unbelievable in their support”.
“We continue to work to understand what our bigger picture goals will be around longer-term support but the immediate support we have been receiving on the ground … we are eternally grateful,” she said.
Ms Brown was under no illusions about the scope of the disaster, with horror stories about individuals and families losing all of their possessions and not having costly insurance.
“We are very, very mindful of the impact to individuals in our community and we are working very fast with our … community recovery hub that is on the ground – the resourcing of that has been phenomenal … they are going to extreme lengths to get out to even our isolated communities.”
She said despite the efforts, a number of people, including the vulnerable elderly and disabled, had been forced to evacuate to Townsville.
Ms Leahy, speaking just after the Bruce Highway closed to the north of Ingham due to further torrential rains on Tuesday, said it was still too early to say how many homes or businesses had been directly impacted by the flooding, let alone the indirect costs.
“Door knocking is still going on in relation to the number of impacted properties but what you do see when you come into Ingham is piles of heartbreak,” she said of the destroyed property being left outside homes for council collection.
“Piles of heartbreak, people’s possessions that are out there on the footpath and it’s the same with businesses here.”
Ms Leahy said she was hopeful the weather conditions would ease in the coming days.
“You wouldn’t think so where we are at the moment, but we are expecting the weather conditions to ease and hopefully we will see some of that sunshine,” she said.
Opposition Leader Steven Miles, also touring Ingham, has called for buy backs and raising flood-struck homes.
He called for a North Queensland Resilient Homes Fund after helping clean homes and talking to devastated residents in Ingham.
The Queensland Labor Government, along with the Commonwealth, established the Resilient Homes Fund in response to the southern Queensland floods of 2021-22.
Under the $741 million Resilient Homes Fund, buy-back was identified for homes most severely impacted and at greatest risk of future flooding.
“I spoke to so many Ingham residents whose homes flooded in 2018 and flooded again this year: Are we seriously going to force them to go through this torment every five years or so?” Mr Miles asked.
“It shouldn’t just be residents in the southeast who we protect from being flooded over and over again.
“If it’s good enough for the south-east it should be good enough for Ingham.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Hinchinbrook flood disaster 2025: Council, state government count cost of ‘perfect storm’
North wants reassurance of ‘building back better’
Dealing with the financial impacts of North Queensland’s flooding event, the business community want all levels of government to follow through on their commitment to “build back better”.
Now open: Ollera Creek bridge open to all traffic
A vital bridge connecting flood ravaged communities has officially been opened to the public, after previously only being available for freight, supply and emergency vehicles.