Millions of dollars in livestock dead as South West farmers face long flood rebuild

A South West Queensland farmer says it could takes years to repair his property after devastating floods killed 6000 sheep and destroyed 60km of fencing.

As Brendan Murray wades through knee deep water and sludge, the crack of gunshots putting down dying sheep echoes across the vast mud patch where his field once stood.

While he says it's too early to tell the true extent of the damages, Mr Murray estimates he’s lost 6000 sheep worth about $1m and up to 60km of fence line on his Eromanga property.

“It’s not good, we had unprecedented flood water (more than) 450mm at the house and country that’s never been underwater had a metre of water on it, we moved stock to places we thought was safe and they still got washed away,” he said.

“Where I am now we’d never lost sheep before, but it was just too wet, too big for too long.

“I never thought I’d see anything like this, it is harrowing. I’ve got my son walking behind me shooting sheep because there’s not much we can do for them.”

Brendan Murray lost 6000 sheep in the floods

Mr Murray is just one of dozens of residents in and around Quilpie who have been left to pick up the pieces after a flood which left tens of thousands of livestock dead and businesses and homes waterlogged.

Record breaking rainfall began in Quilpie 1000km west of Brisbane on Sunday evening, with initial forecasts predicting 5-6mm of rain. However since then more than 500mm of rain has hit the region.

Mr Murray said he had seen all manner of weather events, from storms to droughts, but lamented he’d never “seen anything like this”.

“It’s just a great big mud flat covered in dead kangaroos and sheep, down the bottom the water is still 2m deep, it’s finally falling but I don’t think there’s much we can do for anything down there,” he said.

“No one knows what we are going to do, we’ve never had to deal with this before, the area where the sheep are washed up we won’t have access to for four to six weeks and hopefully by then it won’t be quite as smelly.

“We have a little mob of sheep ahead and if we can get them 200m or 300m away they might live providing it doesn’t rain (Tuesday), because if it rains we will lose them as well.

“We’ve got probably got 60km fence on the ground, and that will take two to three years to repair some of the fencing out here you can only do in dry years and you’re looking at $4000 a kilometre.

“Cattle losses aren’t too bad we think, we are getting some cattle bogged but none washed away, the ground is that wet they are breaking through some of that harder country and bogging to their briskets.”

Brendan Murray lost 60km of fencing on his property

Mr Murray said the real impacts of the floods wouldn't be truly felt until months down the line.

“We were looking for a pretty good wool clip, the big loss is the sheep plus the wool on the sheep, it is devastating and we are looking at 12-18 months of no cash flow,” he said.

“If there is a silver lining in any of it most of what we saved are ewes, but there’s not much good to report.

“We’ve all been talking to our neighbours, one of my neighbours lost 10,000 goats, my story is bad, but there’s worse stories than mine, we are holding up all right.

“We will see how it goes over the next few months, that will be the big thing, down the track is where a lot of this stuff will tell.

“We have always found a way, I just hope we find a way this time”.

Brendan Murray has been forced to put down dying sheep

Mr Murray said one of the biggest failures from the event was BOM’s weather mapping hole across South West Queensland which left farmers scrambling.

“By the time they started to forecast the 200mm plus of rain we’d already had 50-75mm the day before so we were moving stock in water and that’s a lot of rain for a nine inch rainfall country,” he said.

“We tried desperately to get them out on the Sunday but it is a 100,000 acre property you can’t be everywhere in one day we just didn't have time.

“Two or three weeks earlier they forecast 200mm of rain at Birdsville and they got 5mm, they cried wolf so many times no one believed them.”

Cattle on Brendan Murray’s farm have become stuck in the mud

Mayor Ben Hall echoed this and criticised the government for their lack of support for the regions.

“We couldn’t have stopped the rain but if we had a bit more warning from BOM, the capacity to be assured of what we are looking at would’ve been adventitious,” he said.

“When Alfred was at its height it was announced that a call on an election would be delayed because of that weather event, yet right in the middle of the worst flood in the history of Outback Queensland the Prime Minister called an election.

“Our communities are already hurting, some farmers will undoubtedly go to the wall on the back of these stock losses. And the lack of response from the Australian government has left everyone feeling like we don’t matter.

“We literally fuel Australia via our resources and farming and yet our remoteness seems to make it a case of ‘out of site out of mind’ in this disaster.

“Meat prices will undoubtedly skyrocket nationally off the back of the millions of cattle and sheep that have sadly been lost – maybe people will care when it directly impacts them and they’re paying more for their steaks?

“In the meantime there are real people, and animals, suffering in horrific conditions in our own country with very little support. If we had adequate radar systems for warning of what was to come the losses would be nowhere near as high as they are.”

Brendan Murray’s farm is completely under water

General president of AgForce Queensland Shane McCarthy said while it was too early to tell the extent of livestock loss, it was highly likely shoppers would be shouldering the weight of increased meat prices.

“We won't know the full number of lost livestock for a while yet and depending on those numbers it is really going to affect meat prices because of simple supply and demand,” he said.

“There’s a lot of cattle, sheep and goats out in the South West, it is some of the best fattening country in Australia and depending on where they are in the cycle of production could have different impacts.

“If they were full wool and getting ready to sheer that’s not great and if they’re coming off lighter pastures that wouldn't be good either, standing in water for four or five days that’s not good for any stock.”

Mr McCarty praised the struggling farmers who in the space of a week went from droughts to floods.

“They are a resilient bunch otherwise they wouldn’t be farmers,” he said.

“I liken it to this, it’s like there’s a cup and everyone has a different size cup and if trauma after trauma hits you eventually that cup will fill up and overflow.”

Mr Hall said despite the devastation residents remained hopeful.

“Our flood waters are residing and holding at 6.2m, the sun is shining and we are starting to unveil the extent of the damage that has happened here,” he said.

“We can’t get a full assessment on what damage has happened, but it will be significant, early indications suggest we have lost about 70 per cent of livestock.

“People are holding up pretty well, I don’t think the reality has set in for the land producers just yet, but when the water recedes is when they get out and about and have a look.

“These people are fairly isolated, so we are keeping in touch and making sure they are in a position to look after themselves mentally, it will be a huge task for out community.

“We are a tight knit community there is only a few of out here but everyone sticks together, it’s not just community it’s a family.”

Originally published as Millions of dollars in livestock dead as South West farmers face long flood rebuild