Fences rebuilt, homes cleaned and driveways repaved during flood recovery efforts in outback Qld

One month on from devastating floods that hit outback Queensland all but four Adavale residents are back in their homes, but the recovery efforts are far from over.

Flood affected residents across western Queensland have started on the long road to recovery one month on from the devastating floods.

The South West was thrashed by heavy rainfall in March with more than 500mm falling in a matter of days and the flood impacting area reaching double the size of Victoria.

Quilpie mayor Ben Hall said since the disaster the region had been rallying together to get back to their feet.

“The recovery is going well, it's a slow process we have to endure but we are working through everything with residents in Adavale to re-establish them in their homes,” he said.

“All but two homes in Adavale were flooded but everyone has been impacted in some way whether that be their sheds, gardens or fences. To date we only have four people still out of their homes and I think that is a really good result.”

Mr Hall said they had a long road to recovery and it was all about taking it day by day.

“We are getting the structural reports done on the homes as we speak and that should be completed by the end of this week,” he said.

“The clean up is well underway, contracted sanitation crews are going in to homes to make sure they are fit to live in and ensuring there are no health compilations coming out of the dwellings.

“Then there is the resurfacing of people’s gravel driveways and their fences needing to be re-established but overall the clean-up is going well.

“We will open up consultation with the community, a lot of people are in limbo at the moment and we want to proceed as quickly as possible for their own health and wellbeing.”

Quilpie farm flood

For farmers the recovery path is even longer with many still unable to access parts of their properties.

“The situation with our farmers is still evolving, people still aren’t able to entirely traverse their properties yet, those in the catchment area have been impacted a lot, being black soil country it is still hampered by wet conditions and the reports coming back are every bit of devastating as they anticipated,” he said.

“Farmers have started to shear and get their sheep together and we will have an idea of losses over the next month, there has also been a significant numbers of cattle lost but it will take months to pull the numbers together and get an account.

“Some of the photos of cattle eight foot in the air in trees are pretty telling.”

This frame grab taken from video footage provided by The Queensland Fire Department on March 28, 2025 via AFPTV shows rescue workers taking residents from a house on a flooded street in the town of Adavale in southwest Queensland. Whole herds of cattle have drowned in vast inland floods seeping across the Australian outback, officials said on April 1 as the muddy tide drenched an area the size of France. (Photo by Handout / QUEENSLAND FIRE DEPARTMENT / AFP)

Mr Hall encouraged people to help out where they were able.

“The devastation have been overwhelming, this will not be a six months recovery it will be two years just for the infrastructure and that’s not even taking into account the economic impact,” he said.

“We encourage people to donate through GiveIt, they are a good charity and prioritise buying local, the small businesses of these communities don’t really get any assistance other than the stimulus through donations.

“We are open for business, we encourage people to holiday out here, support the economy and see the west at its best.”

Originally published as Fences rebuilt, homes cleaned and driveways repaved during flood recovery efforts in outback Qld