North Burnett floods: Two rescued from floodwaters in Dallarnil, emergency declared

‘Lost absolutely everything’: Residents are devastated as a North Burnett town battles a second major flooding disaster in weeks, with more than 450mm of rain robbing some people of everything they own. LATEST DETAILS:

Residents of a small rural town are mentally and emotionally damaged as they pick up the pieces after being hit by a second disastrous flood in just weeks.

The small town of Dallarnil, north of Biggenden, in the North Burnett received more than 400mm of rain in just a few hours overnight.

The region was devastated during flooding in January, with many only just repairing the damaged caused.

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.”

Cr Jones said the roads leading into Dallarnil were significantly more damaged this time around, leaving the town inaccessible to everyone but emergency crews.

Council workers are currently trying to restore single-road access to the town.

“Physically everyone is fine, but emotionally and mentally is another story,” she said.

“The locals were just on that road to recovery from that last event, and then to have this second hit is just devastating.”

Aftermath of North Burnett flood emergency revealed in photos

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Horse stud owner Candice Faul lives just 5km north of the local state school, and said the rain was unrelenting.

“It started really heavy just before midnight and it rained just absolutely torrential until about 4.50am,” Ms Faul said.

“We would have been having 100mm an hour because our rain gauge gets to 250mm and started overflowing at 2.30am.

“I don’t know how much we had after that but it rained exactly the same – it was just pelting down.”

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Brooke Pagel said Dallarnil was hit harder than anywhere else across the state last night, as a whopping 463mm of rain pummelled the tiny town at Old Range Road.

“That was the highest over Queensland yesterday and today up until 9am,” Ms Pagel said.

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.”

Major flooding and damage in dallarnil overnight. Isis hwy has large amounts of road destroyed. Crew are on scene.

Posted by North Dallarnil Rural Fire Brigade on Thursday, February 24, 2022

Thankfully it appears the township of Dallarnil has not been as hard hit as in January, with Ms Faul reporting the waters had entered houses.

But the torrential rain has damaged much of the repairs resident have made since the last event, with Ms Faul losing three fences along with a new driveway.

Tragically, she was also forced to put down a young filly who broke her leg during the rain.

“Fences and all that are fixable, but when you lose stock, that’s the hardest part,” she said.

The Dallarnil State School has closed for the day due to the weather event.

Member for Callide Colin Boyce visited the town of Dallarnil just last month when much of the town was destroyed by dangerous floodwaters.

“It was a devastating flooding event. The biggest floods in living memory is my understanding,” Mr Boyce said.

“And now we’re seeing the same thing happen again in a short period of time.

“I suppose everyone is just scratching their head at the moment. We’ll have to wait till it all settles down to see what has happened and then try and make some sense of it all.”

An emergency alert has been issued for the region, with warnings flash flooding is occurring and roads and bridges may be submerged.

The North Burnett Regional Council has warned residents to stay off the roads where possible and keep abreast of warnings.

As a result of the flooding at Dallarnil two people had to be rescued after their car was swept off Gospel Hall Road, near the Isis Highway, by floodwaters just before 4am on Friday.

The occupants of a car managed to get out and climb a tree off the highway after the vehicle was swept into raging waters, a Queensland Police spokesman said.

A swiftwater team was deployed at 5.30am and rescued the trapped people by 7am.

They were treated by paramedics and didn’t require hospitalisation.

The North Burnett received an average 150mm of rainfall, with the Biggenden area hit the hardest with 240mm falling overnight.

Ms Pagel said Gayndah “incredibly” passed its average rainfall for the entire month of February in the past two days alone, recording more than 90mm.

The wild weather across the region is expected to continue throughout Friday, with BOM predicting at least 100-150mm of rainfall over the general North Burnett and Gympie areas.

“Some places may get a bit more and others might not get much at all, but that’s what we’re averaging for the day,” Ms Pagel said.

“Try and stay off the road where possible particularly when it does start buckling down, because it will be really heavy rain.”

For more information, visit: https://emergency.northburnett.qld.gov.au/.

For flood assistance, contact the SES on 132 500. In a life-threatening emergency, dial triple-0 (000).

Originally published as North Burnett floods: Two rescued from floodwaters in Dallarnil, emergency declared