The extent of flood waters that have engulfed Queensland over the past fortnight is so widespread it has covered an area more than four times the size of the United Kingdom. The inundation is larger than France and Germany combined – and is even bigger than Texas.
The seemingly endless plains of outback Queensland are so vast and remote as to boggle any attempts to visualise the scale of what is being described as one of the most devastating floods in living memory.
The Bureau of Meteorology said on Friday that the flooding had “severely impacted” more catchments spanning about 1m sq km since prolonged downpours began drenching south-west and central Queensland on 23 March.
To put that in perspective, Tasmania is 15 times smaller (64,519 sq km or 24,911 sq miles); the land area of the United Kingdom is 241,930 sq km, and Texas is 695,662 sq km.
The flooded area is more than four times the size of Victoria (227,038 sq km) and bigger than New South Wales (801,137 sq km). It is about the same size as Egypt and about half the size of Saudi Arabia or Mexico.
If the flooding were a country, it would be the 31st largest on Earth.
The bureau said many stations across the Queensland and New South Wales interior had broken their March or annual rainfall records.
“In four days (from 23 to 26 March) parts of southern and south-western Queensland had more than their annual average rainfall,” a BoM spokesperson said.
“Widespread major flooding continues for parts of Queensland and far northern New South Wales [and] this is likely to continue for many weeks as flood waters slowly move downstream.
“Flood water will drain slowly towards Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre through the south-west Queensland catchments, with a clearer picture of what may eventuate as flood peaks begin to move downstream.”
Tiny, far-flung towns have been evacuated – in some, such as Adavale, every resident has departed. Others will remain cut off for weeks, despite the heavy rain having passed, as the deluge slowly makes way through flat and sodden country via slow moving rivers.
Along with the loss of property and damage to homes, farmers were bracing for the slowly receding water to reveal the extent of agricultural devastation.
The premier, David Crisafulli, told the Queensland parliament on Thursday afternoon that the number of livestock lost to flood water had gone past 150,000.
“I do believe that, sadly, that number will continue to rise in days ahead,” Crisafulli said.
The premier said 4,552km of fencing had been destroyed.
Speaking from Longreach earlier in the week, he said of particular concern was the loss of exclusion fencing that protected stock from canine depredation, which had been rolled out over recent decades and was crucial to the survival of the sheep industry.
Royal Flying Doctors Service base support manager in Charleville, Liane Spencer, said communities like Yowah had been cut off from health care for weeks and were relying on helicopters to drop off medication – as well as food and fodder – and to extract people who needed medical attention.
That lack of primary health care could have “really major impacts” on the largely elderly communities with some “very complex medical situations,” she said. In addition to the physical challenges, Spencer said there would be “a lot of very sad people around the country”.
“There’s been so many homes inundated, they’ve basically had to walk off with just clothes on their back – leave their pets and leave their stock – and then come back to the unknown,” she said.
“And they’re coming back and finding dead kangaroos in their garden, dead pigs in their chook pens and then, once they can get out and about a little bit, just seeing the impact that it has had on their own livestock … that has ramifications.
“Some property owners just can’t come back from that – so there will be a lot of mental health issues ongoing for a long time.”
Dr Piet Filet from Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute said that some stock that survived the flood waters would be battling heavy clays and thick mud and would be at risk of sickness.
But Filet said the vast inundation would also replenish parched soils, recharge the groundwater systems upon which outback communities and industries are dependent for drinking and agricultural water and bring ephemeral ecosystems bursting into life.
“Flooding is the natural process through which our soil fertility is maintained,” he said.
“There are places out there that hadn’t seen rain for two to three years.
“This is the pulse of western Queensland.”
