Story of a Flood

The current Queensland flooding crisis brings back memories of an earlier flood I experienced when trying to travel from Cairns to Longreach in 2008. What was normally a 12 hour drive turned into an ordeal nearly lasting a whole week.

It started with the remnants of ex-Cyclone Helen, which had affected Darwin in the previous week, doing an about-turn off the coast of Queensland and crossing to the south of Townsville as a depression.

I was in Townsville at the time during a stopover on my trip to Longreach and was checking the levels of the Burdekin River at Sellheim on my laptop. It was soon apparent that the river was crossing the level of the bridge and no travel west on the Flinders Highway would be possible.

I made the snap decision to forge a new route via Mackay and Emerald, hoping to miss the bulk of the flood waters. I had no sooner left Townsville the following morning before I found that the highway was backed up with cars for ten kilometres while water was gushing over the Haughton River at Giru. Consequently it was some hours later that I was able to get moving again.

I avoided Mackay altogether by taking a backroad through Mirani and was soon heading down the Peak Downs Highway, a vital transport link between Mackay and the various mines in the Central Highlands. This was new territory for me and I was feeling rather exhausted after a big day of drive. Believing that it was better to arrive late than dead on time, I checked into a motel at Moranbah, about two hours short of my goal of Emerald.

Unfortunately for me, I happened to check in on the night that Moranbah and indeed the entire Central Highlands received record rainfall. As I drove down the Gregory Highway it soon became apparent that this was a historical event. To my utter dismay, the road was closed at Capella, but I made the decision to dodge the unattended roadblock and continued towards Emerald.

Theresa Creek is the final creek crossing to the north of Emerald and I gave my car a real test by driving through 60cm of floodwaters, following a roadtrain who kindly parted the waters for me like Moses through the Red Sea. Feeling relieved that I didn't stall the car in the waters, I drove straight to the police station for advice about the condition of the Capricorn Highway.

If I was dismayed at Capella, the Emerald police did me no further favours as their flood bulletin on the door of their station blandly stated that no travel west (in the direction of Longreach) was possible.

I ended up spending three nights in Emerald, each of them in a different caravan park. As I left each morning, they warned me "You'll never make it through. You'll have to come back here tonight.". I assured them that I wouldn't be back at their caravan park that night. Therefore, checking into a different location each time was my way of saving what little face I had left.

The Capricorn Highway at Anakie, January 2008

The furthermost I made it from Emerald was around 80 kilometres, just past the town of Anakie, where around two metres of very angry floodwater was terrorising the surface of the Capricorn Highway. Given that I was the only person within ten kilometres, and remembering my experience from Theresea Creek, I didn't dare attempt to cross the five-kilometre wide flooded section. Thank goodness I listened to my conscience, otherwise I would have been the first (and only) fatality of that flood event.

With the Fairbairn Dam upstream of Emerald rising higher and higher, it soon became apparent that desperate times called for desperate measures. I checked into my fourth motel and four nights and plotted my escape from Emerald. If I didn't leave the following day, I could be left stranded with the highway expected to be cut in all directions for up to a week.

The new day dawned and I immediately left my motel and headed in the direction of the sun. I was apparently one of the last cars to cross the Comet River before it swamped the highway, and I barely stopped for toilet breaks or lunch as I drove nearly a thousand kilometres in an illogical route that saw me travel from Emerald to Charters Towers via Rockhampton, Mackay and Ayr. I arrived into Charters Towers late that night utterly exhausted and a little stressed about being expected back at work in just two days.

The rest of the trip passed uneventfully, although I later found out that I could have crossed the Burdekin River after my first night in Townsville, as the floodwaters fell in a matter of hours. If I were only a little more patient, I could have saved myself so much trouble.

The level of the current floods in Emerald peaked nearly a metre higher than those I experienced in 2008.