ANDO’S BACK
THE NORTH’S BEST REGIONAL REPORTER RETURNS
IT’S all about that fizzer named Iris, isn’t it. Yes, we know, Iris “threatens” the Whitsundays and the TVs wet their pants with excitement.
The Forgotten People Award for the 2018 Wet Season goes to the residents of Normanton and Karumba.
Yes, it’s flood time in this part of the Gulf Country, but who would know?
The two towns are surrounded by water once again and supplies are being boated and barged 66km up the Norman River to Karumba and then over to Mornington Island.
Going up the Norman in a flood when only the tree tops are sticking out of what has become an inland sea makes the African Queen look like kids’ stuff.
Lose the main channel and you can drift off into the Never- Never. With no signposts, no landmarks, just the tops of trees poking out of the endless sea of brown water, it can be nerve- racking stuff.
Karumba’s one road in is metres under water and has been for more than a fortnight. It might open this weekend.
There has not been flood rain in the Flinders and Leichhardt river catchments, which means that the Normanton to Cloncurry road is open. Roads to the north of Normanton and to the east which connect it to Croydon, Georgetown and ultimately the coast, have been cut for a fortnight. Karumba butcher Calvin Gallagher was hoping the roads would open this weekend. In the meantime, Calvin is supplying his shop with beef via boat from Normanton.
Tough time for cattle
IT’S all flat country around here and in times like these cattle have to find what little islands they can to survive.
It’s nothing to see a mob of cattle, 50 or 60 wallabies, a crocodile and a few goannas and snakes all sharing the same piece of island real estate.
If the cattle don’t find land they have no alternative but to stand in belly- deep water for the duration. In a severe flood this can last for weeks. They can starve to death out there in that inland ocean.
Cattle not so lucky in finding high ground or shallow water face being swept away in the current. Cattle have the ability to blow themselves up with air so that they float very much like a ball in the water, but they have little to no control over where they go. They are carried along by the current.
They float with their heads held high, breathing, but unable to see where they are going. They can travel long distances like this, not stopping until their hooves hit low ground or they become caught in branches or fences or in the suction vacuums and vortexes that develop around submerged bridges. Theirs is a perilous journey downriver in a flood. In bad floods up here I’ve seen them dead, their heads caught in the forked branches of the tops of the trees that poke out of the water.
Cattle are being moved where they can to high ground on low- lying stations near Normanton and Karumba. This is done by low- flying helicopters. Where they can helicopters will be brought in to drop hay to animals stranded on the “islands”.