Brendan Moon: Having just returned from North Queensland, it is clear communities are hurting in northern Australia from areas from Cairns all the way through to Mackay and out to Etheridge, they have experienced an extraordinary flooding and also major impacts to their communities as a result of the event that started almost a week ago.
And importantly, the message is it is not over yet. You will hear from the Bureau in a moment that there has been a severe weather warning issued for this weekend for many of those communities who have been impacted by this particular event.
Sadly, as a result of this event, we do know there have been two fatalities and we also know that recovery from this event is going to be long and it's going to be arduous and it's going to be complex, especially given the nature of the very dynamic weather systems they're facing.
We've seen significant impacting of homes, impacts to small business, impact to communities at large, evacuations, impacts to the power network and the road transport system that is the lifeblood of North Queensland. And that is our focus at this particular point in time. And it's about re-establishing those supply chains. It's about getting power on, it's about getting water into those communities and essential goods.
Importantly, also as we get access to isolated communities, it's about reconnecting those communities to those elements of their lives that allow them to function. And right now that's our focus and that is unfolding as we speak and that's really focusing on those supply chains, water and power to North Queensland.
Given the size and scale of this event this has required all levels of government, from local government through the state government and the Commonwealth government to support the response and also early relief and recovery from this event. Importantly, what we have seen, is that communities have banded together to help each other. We've seen the private sector. We've also seen the not for profits as well engaged at that local level supporting those communities most heavily impacted by this event.
Our Minister for Emergency Management and the Prime Minister have been on-the-ground and have been listening to the needs of those communities and government in North Queensland and they are very much aware of the importance of how we all respond to this particular event. What I might now do Catherine Christensen, who can talk about the upcoming weather event. Thank you, Catherine.
Catherine Christensen: Thank you very much. The weather situation across the country continues to be dynamic. In the past week, we have seen record-breaking rainfall in Queensland, heat waves in Western Australia and across southeastern states along with ongoing bushfires across multiple states, including Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.
The impacts of more than a week of heavy rainfall continue throughout North Queensland's northeast tropical coast, with significant flooding ongoing between Cairns and Rockhampton. Major flood warnings remain current for the Herbert, Murray and Cape Rivers. River levels are generally falling, however, widespread heavy rainfall developing over the weekend is expected to result in renewed moderate to major flooding across the region.
Increased monsoonal activity is developing across northern Queensland and will extend to the Tropical East Coast and including the towns of Townsville and Ingham from tonight and also to adjoining inland areas, and will persist over the weekend. This will bring widespread heavy rainfall across the Queensland North Tropical Coast, as well as across inland areas of North Queensland. A severe weather warning is current as of this morning for heavy rainfall, which may result in life threatening flash flooding to develop between Tully and Eyre, including the regions of Townsville, Cardwell and Ingham.
In addition, a weak tropical low may form near the Tropical East Coast within the trough over the weekend. At this stage, the system is forecast to move away from the Queensland coast as it develops early next week, however it's rated a low chance of developing into a Tropical Cyclone. People in these areas are advised to keep up to date with the latest warnings via the Bureau website or the Bureau app and to follow the advice of local emergency services.
From early next week, the risk of heavy rainfall is expected to contract into Far North Queensland, but isolated heavy rainfall may continue over the North Tropical Coast until the middle of next week or longer. Thank you and I'll pass over to Joe Buffone.
Joe Buffone: Thanks, Cath. What you just heard, both from the Coordinator-General and the Bureau, is a very, very complex system and right now we're absolutely focused on Queensland, but I do want to put a bit of context that there is activity in Western Australia, there is tropical lows in the north, we've got fires in Victoria and we've got fires in Tasmania. But Queensland is our focus. So what do we do here?
Our focus is very much around coordination - making sure that the whole of the Australian Government connected with Queensland Government connected with local government and then delivering fast support to community, is very much our focus. So the National Situation Room has been running 24/7. We've got a Crisis Coordination Team that has been coordinating all of the activities. We've been directly engaged with our colleagues in Defence through our COMDISPLAN arrangements and they have actually provided the support both for the bridge, which you see that is actually creating that connection into Ingham and they've also got six helicopters that are supporting in everything that you can possibly require for the emergency services.
We've also got a heavy lift aircraft which is part of our fire fleet that is actually multi-use that is tasked up in Cairns and that's been providing support through Queensland Fire Department into emergency services and into community.
We've also been running a series of National Coordination Mechanisms with Queensland to make sure that the three lines of effort that the Coordinator-General spoke about. We’re speaking about the road system, which is very, very dynamic because it is saturated, we're talking about air resupply, and there's a number of options that have actually been running through there, in actual fact, there's flights going in- the last one going in on Saturday. And then we're also looking at sea bridge to make sure that you can get volume supply into those communities very, very fast.
So we're looking at every option to support and I said the key thing is very much around coordination at every level of government so community is supported in these very, very challenging times. Thank you. Back to you, Brendan.
Brendan Moon: Thank you. The Minister and I were in Ingham two days ago and it was clear that there has been significant flooding impacts to many of the homes in Ingham, but also in Gordonvale, Cardwell and other areas and getting an understanding of the true impact of this event will take days if not weeks.
As part of our support to assist people and provide that necessary safety net as they recover from this event, there have been key financial assistance measures announced by the government, which include the Australian Government Disaster Relief Allowance and also the Australian Government Disaster Relief Payment. There are also a range of other payments available through the state of Queensland which will actually support those people who are doing it really tough and have been directly impacted by this event.
I urge you get onto the myGov website, test your eligibility if you are in one of those impacted areas. There are people there to support you through this process and ensure you have a safety net in place to support your recovery from this particular event.
We also recognise there will be an enormous burden on local government as they reconnect their community as a result of this event. There have been additional support packages put in place to give local government the confidence that they can start that early reconstruction and recovery effort and there will be there will be a number of announcements over the coming weeks to extend that support as we understand the impact from this particular event.
But I think what's clear, this event is still unfolding. People should heed the messages coming from the emergency services. You need to stay safe, but you also need to recognise into the longer term both local, state and Commonwealth government will be here to support you as we recover from this particular event.
I'm happy to take questions, the questions can be directed to the Bureau or to Deputy Co-ordinator General Buffone as well.
Reporter: So how does the scale of NEMA's response to these current weather event compares with its past operations?
Brendan Moon: This has been a significant event. We have mobilised support across the Commonwealth Government and also we've been working very, very close with the state to augment their response to this and we'll continue into the future. This is not a short run event. We will be here to support those communities and government throughout the entirety of this particular event.
Reporter: And so what do you think those future operations look like at the moment?
Brendan Moon: So right at this moment, as Deputy Co-ordinator General Buffone has spoken about, the focus at a local level is getting the power on and it's about getting technicians into that area. It's about potentially flying technicians in or using a range of Commonwealth assets that are available, it's also about getting them access through other not-normal means. I saw a group of people crossing a railway bridge that was used to ferry technical people in. Barge support to Palm Island to turn the power back on. So it's very much driven by local impacts and the needs of that community.
Importantly, we are working very, very closely with the local government and the state government where we identify issues that need to be supported quickly, we can mobilise resources quickly to solve those problems. Water has been a big challenge as well. Also essential food supplies not only for the impacted areas but also for North Queensland and we're looking at a number of options to support those communities get access to those essential food supplies.
Reporter: Can you walk us through some of those options? A lot of people are seeing, you know, empty supermarket shelves. It's quite worrying for them I think.
Brendan Moon: So they have been already airlift into those areas for North Queensland out of Brisbane. Supermarkets have been bulk loading into aircraft into those, it's ongoing. There's also there is a lot of work being focused right now on reinstating the Bruce Highway. And also as recently as this morning, we convened a meeting of all the supermarket chains, the logistics providers and also the sea freight operators to look at a third option, which is potentially a sea bridge supplying supplies to North Queensland.
Reporter: And I think when Australians think about recent floods in recent times, the 2022 Lismore floods obviously come to mind, so can you just tell us a little bit about these two events? I guess, what similarities there are and what differences there In terms of those whether events and also NEMA’s response.
Brendan Moon: It's really difficult comparing individual events with each other. What we do know about this event is that those communities received over a metre of rain in the space of three days. Now these communities are some of the wettest communities in the country during a normal season, but what we saw were evacuations from those communities such as Cardwell, such as Townsville, such as Ingham into evacuation centres. They're used to dealing with flooding, but the size of this event was really significant and the amount of rain that fell in such a short amount of time is certainly difficult to deal with.
Some of the locals in Ingham spoke about the 1967 flood and said that was a record but also some of them indicated to the mayor most recently they'd never seen water in places like that before. So it's a large event and there threatens to be more.
Reporter: Just on that, what warning would you give people who are considering crossing floodwaters?
Brendan Moon: If it's flooded, forget it is the clear message. You do not know what is underneath floodwaters at this particular point in time. The floodwaters that we've seen have high turbidity, they are very muddy. It is very, very difficult to see what's underneath. And we've also seen significant washouts on key transportation routes. So to attempt to cross those would be extraordinarily dangerous and our message is don't. Also, the message is listen to your local emergency management agencies.
