An outback shire president has called on the WA government and Coles to conduct a thorough review to learn from "shortcomings" in its response to a food crisis earlier this month.
The vast outback East Kimberley region was cut off by road for almost a week when floodwater in the Northern Territory surged above a crucial bridge.
Fresh fruit, vegetables and meat ran out on the shelves of Kununurra's only two supermarkets, Coles and IGA Tuckerbox, within a day.
Residents pleaded for emergency assistance for five days, but the Victoria Highway had reopened by the time sea barges and military planes started to reach the region.
WA's Department of Fire and Emergency Services spent about a week trying to find a private operator to fly fresh food into the region, before asking the Australian Defence Force for help.
Then there was confusion when WA Premier Mark McGowan said fresh food would arrive on the first two military flights but the planes were instead loaded with dry goods, which supermarkets had stressed were not the priority.
The state government blamed Coles' fresh food policy, which was designed to protect from spoilage, but ultimately some fresh produce arrived in the region on a third military flight.
Wyndham East Kimberley Shire president David Menzel said the government and Coles needed to closely review how it prepared for and responded to the food shortages.
"I'm not really keen to allocate blame to anyone," Mr Menzel said.
"What we really want to do is highlight that there were shortcomings.
"All the parties in this region should be working through to identify what those shortcomings were and what possible solutions we've got going into the future."
Call for better planning
Road freight has only entered the region along the Victoria Highway, from the Northern Territory since January.
There have been delays due to quarantine inspections and the extra distance required to bring goods through the middle of Australia.
Road access to the rest of Western Australia was cut when record flooding severely damaged a crucial bridge along the Great Northern Highway at Fitzroy Crossing.
Cr Menzel said authorities and supermarkets should have foreseen the risk of losing road access to the Northern Territory given widespread flooding in the wet season was common.
"You'd think there would have been a plan in place," he said.
"So why we've found ourselves wanting at this point of time, on this occasion, is a bit perplexing."
There have been repeated shortages of fresh food at Kununurra's Coles since the Great Northern Highway was cut in January, which had pushed demand onto smaller supermarkets.
Cr Menzel said it pointed to broader problems with outback supply chains.
He questioned if there was a way to build further stock levels in remote regions.
"There's a body of work which needs doing there," he said.
Review begins
A DFES spokesperson said it was standard practice for the department to review operations after a serious incident.
"DFES identified private freight operators capable of transporting essential supplies to affected communities," the spokesperson said.
"However, supermarket requirements made it difficult to transport fresh meat and dairy products and frozen goods by air."
A Coles spokesperson said the company would continue talks with the WA government about how to ensure consistent supply of groceries into Kununurra.
"We thank the Kununurra community for their patience while we continue to navigate the freight difficulties presented by the Fitzroy River bridge outage and our priority remains ensuring a reliable supply of all food and groceries into the local store," the spokesperson said.
