Half a million cattle die – Devastation in North West Queensland and the Gulf

What we thought was just going to be a quick night or two stuck at McKinlay in North West Queensland turned into a horror story for many of our friends living on stations in the area.

Now before I start banging on too much, I have had quite a few readers ask how they can help or donate. If you would like to help in some way there is a fabulous group in Cloncurry called Sisters of the North – please head over and like their Facebook page. This is a recent initiative set up by 2 local ladies who are Cloncurry locals – Jane McMillan and Susan Dowling – and thank god they did. They have set up a GO FUND ME page where you can donate. Please spread the word.

Ok back to the story… We were travelling home from dropping our 2 older boys at boarding school in Brisbane, if you missed the post about our time in McKinlay you can read it HERE. I wrote that blog post before the disastrous rain hit, when everyone was really happy to be getting some much needed rain after drought.

While stranded we decided to stay happy and look on the bright side, that was until it rained all night – on Monday 4th Feb (our 5th night stuck there). I did a Facebook live the following day and spoke about how scary the weather was that night. I will never forget lying in bed in that little donga where we were staying at The Walkabout Creek Hotel. It absolutely poured with rain all night an the wind was next level, I honestly thought the window was going to cave in on us and poor little Clancy on the floor. Lets just say I don’t think I would cope well in cyclonic conditions. It was truly scary.

The next morning we woke up to news of further devastation. Julia Creek had copped 9 inches of rain over night. NINE INCHES PEOPLE!!!!! We didn’t even get that much rain here at Chardy Central all of last year (and to everyone that has been asking – we haven’t really had much rain here in the NT). It is just unheard of, crazy. The rain and wind also brought some pretty chilly weather and with all of that rain the country turned into a inland sea and most of the cattle didn’t stand a chance. Here is a map showing the area that has been affected – more than 13 million hectares (twice the size of Tasmania)…

The north is a very small place and although we live in the NT we know all of these people, they are our friends, they are our kids schoolmates. It is just so sad. Some people have lost close to everything. Now when we say everything – this isn’t the same as a flood hitting a town where you only lose your house – I mean that is bad enough though, right! These people have lost their livelihoods – their cattle, their income. Some of these stations are bigger than countries in Europe – is is massive. Houses & sheds have flooded, machinery lost, fences down and I think we need to keep saying this: CATTLE ARE DEAD – it is catastrophic!!

Because I wanted to make sure what Mr Chardy and I had been thinking and talking about was correct I decided to run it past a friend of mine who is in the thick of things over near Julia Creek – Ground Zero. I messaged Edwina Hick to find out if I was on the money or way off. They only managed to return back to their station not long ago. They too had been on holidays and doing the school drop off. Words can’t describe what her and her husband – Patrick – returned to. But of course – like all bush people – they are tough…. there always seems to be someone worse of and they don’t like to whinge. They just wanted to get on with things. They don’t want handouts – they are business people.

I then spoke on the phone to Patrick. At first they thought they didn’t want hand outs and they wanted to fix this themselves – because that is what bush people do – but it soon became evident amongst everyone in the community that this was bigger than anyone could even imagine, they just couldn’t do it themselves. They most certainly need help.

Now I have had readers ask me how they can help but the truth is, as Patrick and Edwina said – what you can do to help is work hard and pay your taxes. This is something the government needs to step in an fix. It is simple too and can be fixed in 3 steps:

1. Bury the dead – apparently the armed forces won’t do this which is unfortunate and very sad for the families
2. Fix infrastructure such as fences that are down
3. Re-stock the paddocks

I heard the Prime Minister mentioning that they will need “Mental Health Support”… but you know what – they just need cold hard cash from the Government. Lets get real here people – these tough farmers aren’t going to ask for “mental health support” they just aren’t, you can bang on about it all you like and spend millions on campaigns but it won’t make a lick of difference, put the funding into buying cattle and filling their paddocks – then they won’t need the mental health support. Lets call it “Government Support ” instead.

A few fun facts for you as a little interval – if you will… According to the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade – Foreign Aid has been budgeted as follows in the 2018/2019 budget: $1.3 Billion to the Pacific Nations, $1 Billion to South East & East Asia, $289.9 Million to South and West Asia $258.5 Million to The Middle East & Africa, $410 Million for Humanitarian Assistance, $55 Million for Gender Equality Fund (are you serious, how is this foreign aid?), $35 Million for Innovation – total cost $4.2 Billion…. lord give me strength.

We need you to share these stories and make Australia aware of just what is going on. This news story shows you just what is going on…

As Alistair said – some people just won’t recover. This has a serious knock on effect too. It isn’t just the farmers who are affected it is whole communities. The farmers contribute greatly to the local economies. The shops in small towns will be hit, truck drivers, trucking companies, helicopter companies and chopper pilots, spelling yards and the list goes on. These businesses will be affected for at least 3 years. There will be road trains parked up with no cattle to cart – because, well half a million head have been lost! That is kind of a big deal.

We need the government and people of Australia to support these farmers directly. Basically they need cash. The Government needs to compensate these farmers for each beast that has died. If you provide cold hard cash to these farmers they will spend it locally and help keep other businesses alive – they will boost the local economy. We are not talking loans, we are talking compensation. We don’t give loans to Indonesia, we give funds. Lets do the same for our own people suffering in North West Queensland so we can keep our own economies, in Australia, ticking over.

These farmers feed Australia. Yes sure we choose to live out here on these remote stations but if we didn’t then who would? If Australia loses their farmers you won’t get fed or clothed. Your beef would be coming from overseas. So while some in Cities (not all) may sit back and think “this doesn’t affect me” then think again. It does. I need you to understand just how big these herds of cattle are. The latest count is approximately half a million cattle are dead. Half a million!

I could keep banging on about it but I think the videos speak for themselves. We need to help our farmers. Ed and I have our Wild Spark Event happening in Mt Isa on the 8th March and we have been trying to think of what we can do to help. We will be giving away 2 tickets to ladies who have been affected by the floods and may not otherwise have been able to attend. Wild Spark is all about women supporting women so I really hope that our first event can do this for the ladies of the North West.

https://youtu.be/5uhfj1G7o-E

To all of my blogging blogging friends – I beg you to share these stories, it is so important to let all Australians know what is happening up here, I know many of you have such a huge reach and it would be such a massive help if you could share this with your audience – which is probably a totally different audience to what is currently being reached.

Are you one of the many people who have been affected by these floods? Please say hello in the comments, tell us your story – this is so important – are you a farmer who has lost so much, maybe a volunteer who is flying hay in, maybe you are a local business. Please let us know.

Thanks to everyone who has shared their stories on the news, on social media and beyond, we need to keep this story alive. It is still early days and we realise many of you can’t even get around to see the full extent of the damage.

Thank you to Jacqueline Curley for allowing me to use some of her photos for this post – if you would like to see the full extent of this disaster please read and share THIS post of hers.