Owner’s of Hidden Valley Cabins urge council to repair roads as residents suffer from flood damage

Business owners in Paluma are feeling forgotten as they struggle to get power, water and telecommunications up and running again. See why they are desperate for road repairs.

Small business owners in Paluma are pleading for help from the government after record flood waters destroyed roads and equipment and cut them off from supplies and communication.

Tucked into the Paluma rainforest is an off-grid resort, Hidden Valley Cabins, which has been owned and operated by Steve and Sonia Ellery and their daughter and son-in-law Tahlia and Kurt Harlow since 2022.

The family has now had to put all their bookings on hold, which could cost them tens of thousands of dollars in business, while they battle to fix equipment and improve road access.

“Nobody saw this coming,” Mr Harlow said.

“All of our equipment, our fire truck, our service equipment, it’s all gone underwater, and it’s completely stuffed.”

Steve and Sonia Ellery with Kurt and Tahlia Harlow, holding sons Billy and Jack, outside the entrance to Hidden Valley Cabins. Photo: Facebook

“Our hearts go out to those in the Hinchinbrook and the Townsville region, but as much as they are getting the attention we also need the attention, particularly the Charters Towers region.”

While Mr and Mrs Harlow are stuck in Sydney, Mr and Mrs Ellery are working tirelessly at the resort in their recovery effort, reporting they ran out of water on Friday after experiencing days without telecommunications.

“We get (our water supply) from our creek and we have a solar pump that’s hooked directly to the resort and that all went under water so now the power is completely cut out,” Mr Harlow said.

“Our water supply is one of our biggest problems, having no water, if we don’t have water we don’t have a resort to function.

Roads to Hidden Valley Cabins have been damaged due to record breaking floods in the area.

“But the biggest thing is road access.”

For the past year, the business owners have been proposing for their road to be tarred, but a lack of local government funding has halted all plans.

“We are very passionate about displaying this part of Australia but in order to do that we need good roads,” he said.

“We’ve got about 4 km of dirt road leading to our place from Paluma but these dirt roads, they were only just recently (grated) by the road crew but now it’s just gone back to square one, if not worse.”

Mr Harlow said three main access points into Hidden Valley and Paluma had been cut off, Hervey Range road was only accessible by four-wheel drive, and Paluma Range had been impacted by multiple landslides.

“We are in desperate need for road access,” he said.

“Residents in Paluma for them to get to Townsville or anywhere they need access to that Hervey Range road and that road is pretty rugged, you couldn’t get through it with a two wheel drive.”

“We need the funding to get these roads going again; otherwise, people in Paluma and Hidden Valley are going to struggle big time.”

Mr Harlow felt as though Paluma and Hidden Valley don’t get “as much care and attention” as other areas do from the Charters Towers city council.

“Once the rain settles, we urgently need the roads done so we can open up for business,” he said.

“We can’t afford to be shut for an extended period of time because we are going to miss out on tens of thousands of dollars from cruise ships and education programs.”

“We really need the council to understand that our business needs to thrive, and to thrive, it needs good roads.”

Roads to Hidden Valley Cabins have been damaged due to record breaking floods in the area.

March is expected to be one of the resort’s biggest months of the year, with tours for cruise ship passengers, educational program tours and retreats.

“We had a retreat actually booked in today and that’s already costing us but we had cruise ships and other things lined up that were going to miss out on,” Mr Harlow said.

“We are trying to sing out as much as we can. We need help, not just from our local government but from our state and federal.”

Mayor Liz Schmidt from The Charters Towers Council said they had reached out to the community and spoken to residents personally last week.

“Council remains in regular contact with impacted residents in the Paluma and Hidden Valley townships and is providing as much assistance as possible given the current weather conditions,” she said.

“Unfortunately, road access to these areas remains closed, isolating these areas and preventing Council crews from assessing damage to roads and surrounding infrastructure.”

“Telecommunications outages in many areas is also making communication with residents and businesses difficult. Council is working diligently to assist in having connectivity restored and aims to provide assistance as soon as possible.

“However, with the predicted weather conditions in the coming days conditions may worsen before they get better, meaning that this may take some time. We appreciate the community’s patience and will continue to provide updates to affected residents and businesses as more information becomes available.”

Originally published as Owner’s of Hidden Valley Cabins urge council to repair roads as residents suffer from flood damage