{"id":212122,"date":"2026-01-01T21:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T21:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/212122\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T21:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T21:12:11","slug":"flood-disaster-taking-toll-on-graziers-in-north-west-queensland-more-rain-forecast-for-tropical-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/212122\/","title":{"rendered":"Flood disaster taking toll on graziers in north-west Queensland, more rain forecast for tropical coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ringer Jessica Bridges turns on the TV at night to fall asleep so she does not have to listen to the rain.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of anxiety and big emotions in a lot of people’s households,” Ms Bridges said.<\/p>\n

“What happened in 2019 was horrible, and to have to live through that more than once in your lifetime \u2026 there’s an essence of PTSD.”<\/p>\n

As rain eases in the north west as a weakening tropical low tracks south, Ms Bridges said “there’s still a lot of water to come down the channels”.<\/p>\n

\"Cattle<\/p>\n

Choppers have taken to the skies to push cattle to higher ground, drop fodder and survey damage.\u00a0 (Supplied: Keely Hughes)<\/p>\n

At Gilliat Plains, her family’s cattle station west of Julia Creek, she is exhausted.<\/p>\n

“Lots of people are asking if we know what kind of damages or losses we’ve got, but I think the thing is, there could be a hundred cows there yesterday and none today.<\/p>\n

“I’ve heard some horrific stories over on the Julia Creek water course \u2026 people that can’t find their cattle at all.”<\/p>\n

\"Floodwater<\/p>\n

A road off the Flinders Highway between Julia Creek and Richmond.\u00a0 (Supplied: Keely Hughes\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Potential isolated heavy falls<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said there was still the potential for isolated heavy falls in “already flooded catchments” in the north-west.<\/p>\n

\"Floodwaters<\/p>\n

Dozens of roads are closed around north west Queensland.\u00a0 (Supplied: Steve Malone)<\/p>\n

“It should be much more isolated than we’ve seen over the past several days,” meteorologist Shane Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

“There is the potential to see further 15 to 40 millimetres per day with more isolated 50 to 100 millimetres.”<\/p>\n

Major flooding is possible at Richmond from late Friday, he said.<\/p>\n

A week of monsoonal rainfall has caused havoc across the state’s north and north west.<\/p>\n

A man in his 70s died at Normanton<\/a>, a father and daughter were rescued from rising floodwaters near Boulia<\/a>, communities have been isolated, access has been cut to dozens of roads, including major highways and travellers have been left stranded.<\/p>\n

Seven people were also rescued after becoming stranded in floodwaters at Lannercost, near Ingham, about 7pm on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Authorities said while the people managed to escape from their vehicle, they were cut-off, and swiftwater rescue crews were called in to retrieve them.<\/p>\n

Several locations in the north west broke monthly December rainfall records, including Burketown, Normanton, Cloncurry and Julia Creek with 450mm to 550mm.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Iffley Station in the Gulf of Carpentaria.\u00a0 (Supplied: Alana Lupton)<\/p>\n

Acting Superintendent of the Mount Isa District Paul Austin said while conditions were easing, people should not be complacent.<\/p>\n

“We still have a lot of run-off, water moving in river systems at major flood level,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We also have quite a few people trapped in some of those smaller towns.”<\/p>\n

Graziers have been eager to assess stock losses and shift cattle to higher ground.<\/p>\n

In the Gulf of Carpentaria, Ashley Gallagher said his pilot’s efforts to move cattle hit an unexpected hurdle \u2014 crocodiles.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A cattle yard underwater at Sawtell Creek.\u00a0 (Supplied: Ashley Gallagher)<\/p>\n

“He went to shift some cows off a ridge, and when they walked into the water, there was a hell of a commotion, and they all shot back under the helicopter, and he said there was four big salties in the water,” Mr Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

“He had to leave the cows on the island.”<\/p>\n

With more rain around Cloncurry and Julia Creek, Mr Gallagher was worried about what was still to come in the Gulf.<\/p>\n

“It’s like geez, we hope this [water] gets away a little bit before that arrives,” he said.<\/p>\n

Flood risk not over on east coast<\/p>\n

On the coast, a severe weather warning south of Ingham to north of Bowen is likely to continue across the weekend.<\/p>\n

Onshore winds are colliding over the north east coast and bringing more rain with heavy falls possible around Townsville, the BOM’s Mr Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

The area has already received significant falls, with the BOM recording \u00a0251mm in the Townsville suburb of Castle Hill since 9am on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Townsville Mayor Nick Dametto said king tides in the coming days after the heavy rainfall this week meant the flood risk was not over for the city.<\/p>\n

“We do want to make sure that people are prepared \u2026 we’ll be making sure that sandbags are replenished.”<\/p>\n

Residents, including Duncan Fyfe, have had enough.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Duncan Fyfe has been battling water in his basement.\u00a0 (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)<\/p>\n

“It’s been absolute hell to be honest because it’s happening again and it’s like Groundhog Day \u2026 we just can’t keep getting this water,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You’re stressed out overnight, you’re watching the rain, you’re looking at the BOM maps, and it gets emotionally draining.”<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology said the system should shift offshore early next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ringer Jessica Bridges turns on the TV at night to fall asleep so she does not have to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,3092,111,139,44274,69,3654,6560,147,128747],"class_list":{"0":"post-212122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-floods","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-north-west","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-queensland","15":"tag-rain","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-townsville"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}