Disruption to food supplies worse than expected as floods put Western Australia in danger

Mark McGowan may be forced to plead with eastern states as extensive flooding threatens Western Australia’s food supply. Picture: Getty Images

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has so far believed with a passion bordering on arrogance that his state should operate separately from the rest of the nation in Covid affairs.

But this weekend his government received a terrible shock: the inland floods are worse than original estimates and parts of WA, including, Perth, are likely to run short of many food items unless drastic steps are taken.

Stripped off his arrogance, the WA Premier may be forced to plead with the Commonwealth and the eastern states to take the steps needed to provide food and other consumables to WA.

The Commonwealth’s Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), which operates the 2700km Nullarbor rail track, has scheduled a conference for Monday to assess the dire situation. The largest train operator on the track, Pacific National, has called for Defence help.

ARTC closed the Perth-eastern state rail link on January 21, which means by the time Monday’s emergency conference is concluded no trains will have crossed the Nullarbor for 10 days. When the track was closed ARTC estimated it would reopen on January 26. But more rain fell and additional air surveys were undertaken, and on Australia Day ARTC made the chilling announcement that not only were the wash-aways and bridge destruction much greater but the flooding was so bad that around 17km of track could not be accessed to properly determine the damage and start repairs or diversions. The area affected is in South Australia, west of Port Augusta.

ARTC calculated that the track would be closed for another 12 to 17 days – about three weeks.

Food and other goods are still arriving in Perth by road but that’s only a fraction of goods taken by rail.

While retailers keep stocks for emergency a large amount of the trading is on a “just in time” basis and the maximum stockholding is normally about two weeks. Perth will also suffer shortages in steel and other building materials.

Outside the transport industry and the big retailers there is little knowledge in the eastern states of the shortages about to hit Perth and WA.

And very few Perth people fully understand the dangers.

The eastern state transport and retail networks have been preoccupied with Covid issues. The WA government should have been on the front foot as soon as the ARTC Australia Day statement was made but preferred taking swipes at eastern states. Perhaps unfairly, to many it seemed that keeping people out of WA was considered more important than bringing in food and other essential goods.

It’s no wonder Wesfarmers is shifting key parts of its administration, including the CEO, to Melbourne. Others are considering following Wesfarmers.

Darwin is also hit by flood and goods can’t be supplied from ­Adelaide.

But it is possible to divert trucks via Queensland to get to Darwin (and Alice Springs) and relieve the shortages. The scale of the task ahead is underlined by some of the simple facts:

● Every week almost 30km of freight trains travel to WA and about half of that capacity is filled with food another consumables.

Right now a big portion of that 30km of train is marooned on the line. Many train crews have been sent home.

● Over in Perth few ever envisaged that the supply chain could be broken for close to a month. To simply carry one week’s food and consumables destined by train for Perth would take around 800 giant “B-double” trucks, in addition to those already travelling the Nullarbor. That quantity of trucks and drivers is simply not available. But large numbers of east coast trucks can be mobilised.

● With goodwill from the transport companies and drivers, and all the normal restrictions, a sudden avalanche of “rescue” trucks coming to WA would almost certainly infect the state with the contagious Omicron Covid variant.

● ARTC has thrown all its resources into the immense track repair task but it might be possible to mobilise more engineers and building contractors from around Australia, with the help of Defence to speed the process.

● It will be necessary to return much current food cargo marooned on the tracks back to the shippers, given the delays are now greater than first thought. At the moment diesel generators are being used to keep refrigerated vans operating but much of the food has a use-by date which will make it difficult to sell in Perth, depending on how long the line takes to open.

● Truck drivers in the eastern states are starting to smell big dollars. My WA friends tell me that it normally costs between $11,000 and $13,000 for a large truck to go across the Nullarbor. The price has already risen to about $20,000 but it could go to $40,000. The return journey is much cheaper because fewer goods are available but it too will need to rise.

● Pacific National want Defence help to quickly build emergency transfer terminals at Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie, so that trucks that travel across the Nullarbor can contain their journey to Port Augusta-Kalgoorlie. Rail would be used to take goods to Port Augusta and from Kalgoorlie to Perth.

● Another emergency solution being considered is to use the eastern states rail link between Melbourne and Brisbane to free eastern state trucks to go to Perth. But the trucks that operate in the east coast are much smaller than the “B-doubles”. Sadly there are other drawbacks to this solution. Only by increasing the price substantially will east coast truck drivers be enticed to risk their equipment on the 2700km haul across the Nullarbor.

Both Commonwealth and state governments are riddled with politicians who prefer road transport to rail and so the eastern state rail track between Melbourne and Brisbane is a disgrace. But if Mark McGowan pleads loudly enough, the large transport companies may use the antiquated east coast rail system to help get food to WA.

● Priority will need to be given to food and what West Australians need as distinct from what they might currently consume. For example, toilet paper and alcoholic beverages may not rank highly. WA has a brewery and wineries and also has a toilet paper factory. Building workers stood down because of steel shortages may have a different priority.

And those WA enterprises exporting to the east face a tough time.