Over the weekend, Narelle Hetherington got a call from a couple planning a more than 1,000km trip across Queensland. The drive would see them pass through Winton, where Hetherington runs a motel – the couple wanted a room.
“I’m like, ‘mate, the roads are all cut off out here,’” Hetherington says.
With the Western River breaking its banks as a deluge of water ran through Channel Country, the normally dry and dusty Winton became a kind of island emerging from the state’s inundated western plains. As of Monday, the town has been isolated for about a week.
“He said: ‘Well, what will we do?’” Hetherington says.
“I said: ‘Dude, you’re ringing an old lady in outback Queensland asking for life advice.’”
Despite the sardonic reply, the “dude” in Hetherington’s anecdote was acting in accordance to what many who live at the whims of monsoonal rain advise. In an age of artificial intelligence and instantly updating digital maps, he was planning ahead – and spoke to a human being with direct experience of the conditions.
After between 200 and 500mm of rain fell across vast swathes of the state’s north and west in the week to Sunday – blocking major roads and cutting off towns at a time of year when so many are seeking to return home from holidays, or are embarking upon fresh odysseys – not everyone was as circumspect as that man.
Hetherington says she rang another guest to advise her to postpone her trip until flood waters receded.
“She said: ‘Oh yeah, Google maps has rerouted us and we’re going to be two hours late,’” Hetherington says. “I said: ‘You can’t travel on those dirt roads – you’d sink.’”
The Winton shire mayor, Cathy White, says travellers stranded for the week in Winton had “gotten to know each other pretty well”.
All have been well looked after in the town that now hosts a disaster management centre with an industrial kitchen, washing machines and recreational facilities, she says. Most had heeded advice and avoided taking flooded roads.
“But there’s always gotta be a couple, haven’t there?” White says.
“Yeah, there has been people that have either been stuck between towns, caught in flood waters, and they were either turned around and gone back or they’ve had to be airlifted out.”
The wet weather hasn’t just been an issue in the outback.
Bonnie Brook’s Karthik Nathan was driving with his family of seven through the Wet Tropics to Cairns when they took a detour on the one road into Wallaman Falls on Thursday, 7 News reported. After a storm that afternoon, water rose over the road and into their car.
Three farmers tending their bulls happened upon the Melbourne family and rescued them from the flood waters.
“They were pretty stressed out,” Alan Masters told 7 News. “‘Cause there’s crocodiles, saltwater crocodiles, in the creek here.”
And non-tourists have also relied on local knowledge to keep abreast of the weather.
Melanie Grant has run the Winton Newsagency & Travel Service for about seven years and several floods, but has never had to move stock in her store, which abuts on to the river.
On Saturday morning she got a call from a friend asking her if she wanted help to do just that – something she hadn’t even considered to that point.
“He’d been talking to some graziers, one of them was 90 and he’d never seen rain like that on his property,” she says.
“He told me: ‘Oh Mel, there’s a lot of water coming down our way.’”
Grant took up her friend’s offer of a hand to prepare for the peak flooding, which hit at about 10pm Sunday. By Monday she was back in business relatively unscathed.
More rain is forecast for the state’s north later this week and several flood warnings remained current as of Monday afternoon in the north and west, but Mayor White hopes it won’t be long before waters recede and towns like Winton will roll out the welcome mat again.
“Within a couple of weeks we’ll be back to normal,” she predicts. “And that’s the time to see it – the birdlife and wildlife will be spectacular out here over coming months.”
Visitors should check the Bureau of Meteorology warnings and shire Facebook and websites for daily road closure updates before hitting the road, she says.
“If you don’t know, pick up the telephone to somebody in that community and get the information.”
