{"id":107786,"date":"2025-08-31T01:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T01:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107786\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T01:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T01:25:13","slug":"from-natural-disaster-help-to-mustering-and-transport-bush-choppers-are-a-lifeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107786\/","title":{"rendered":"From natural disaster help to mustering and transport, bush choppers are a lifeline"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a bird’s eye view of outback Queensland, red dirt, rugged rocky outcrops and the occasional community dotted in the distance, a day at the office for Jed Manning looks a little different.<\/p>\n

“It’s always exciting looking up to the skies and going again,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Every day is different and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”<\/p>\n

From the cockpit of his chopper, he’s dropping supplies to disaster-affected areas one day and rounding up rebellious cattle the next.<\/p>\n

He is one of the many bush chopper pilots in outback Australia ready to take to the skies at any moment, when duty calls.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jedd Manning’s aviation career has already taken him to remote places across the country. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)<\/p>\n

After growing up on the land in Dubbo, New South Wales, Mr Manning’s first post took him to the sparsely populated Pilbara region in Western Australia.<\/p>\n

“As a junior you’ve got to take on any job you can get and for me that was across in WA,” the now 23-year-old said.<\/p>\n

“It was a lot of helicopter mustering right across the Pilbara and everything else that comes with station life.”<\/p>\n

Angels from the sky<\/p>\n

Fast forward a couple of years and Mr Manning is plying his craft in central and western Queensland.<\/p>\n

In March and April, outback Queensland communities were left devastated by catastrophic widespread flooding, which covered an area twice the size of Victoria.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Helicopter pilots like Mr Manning were the first to lend a hand.<\/p>\n

“You got to see a lot that \u2026 other people didn’t see and to see that amount of water and devastation was heartbreaking coming from a farming background,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There was a lot of rain on the horizon and we weren’t sure if it was going to eventuate, but we decided to head out there early and lucky we did because once we got out there it did start to rain and it didn’t stop.”<\/p>\n

For days on end, the choppers were a lifeline, dropping fodder to stranded livestock and helping evacuate flooded residents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We were busy doing fodder drops and supply drops out to all the isolated stations and keeping cattle fed that had no tucker during that time,” Mr Manning said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

A fleet of aircraft delivered vital supplies to livestock stranded throughout western Queensland. (Supplied: Jedd Manning)<\/p>\n

“Some of the water was 60 kilometres wide. Once the [livestock] found themselves on an island they ate themselves out pretty quick.<\/p>\n

“So getting fodder to them was pretty vital to keep them going.”<\/p>\n

Head pilot Jamie Bush said the community camaraderie and resilience were extraordinary.<\/p>\n

“The amount of devastation that was there, but the people that came together were amazing,” Mr Bush said.<\/p>\n

“For such a bad time, it was a really good time with everyone putting in together.”Bush helicopter haven<\/p>\n

On the outskirts of the small rural town of Clermont, four hours north-west of Rockhampton, a hangar of mustering and transport choppers and a crew of pilots stand by.<\/p>\n

Jamie and Mardi Bush operate helicopter bases in Clermont and Longreach.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jamie and Mardi Bush run helicopters out of their Clermont and Longreach bases. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)<\/p>\n

The husband-and-wife operation has taken off since humble beginnings on a family cattle station between Clermont and Alpha in central Queensland.<\/p>\n

“We started with mustering really,” Mr Bush said.<\/p>\n

“The parents had cattle stations and they used helicopters when we were kids so I guess that’s where the interest came from.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A helicopter takes off from the Clermont base after being called out to a job. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)<\/p>\n

Whether cattle mustering or helping during natural disasters, helicopter pilots provide a lifeline in a crisis for rural and remote areas of the country.<\/p>\n

“We’re pretty lucky where we’re based,” Mr Bush said.<\/p>\n

“We can service a wide range of areas and multiple \u2026 jobs.”\"A<\/p>\n

The Queensland Fire Department use helicopter services for a variety of emergency operations. (Supplied: Bush Heli Services)<\/p>\n

From floods to bushfires and storm season, Mr Bush said his crew was gearing up for another busy summer ahead.<\/p>\n

“We do pretty much everything we possibly can to help,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Wherever we get the call to go to, we’ll go, in Queensland.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a bird’s eye view of outback Queensland, red dirt, rugged rocky outcrops and the occasional community dotted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,77245,77244,63214,75,77247,24654,4892,77248,77249,10570,30590,77246,23850,19514,128,16861,32643],"class_list":["post-107786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bush-choppers","tag-cattle-mustering","tag-clermont","tag-environment","tag-family-operation","tag-floods","tag-helicopter","tag-jamie-and-mardi-bush","tag-muster","tag-natural-disasters","tag-outback-queensland","tag-pilots","tag-regional-communities","tag-rural-towns","tag-science","tag-transport","tag-western-queensland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}