Tony Rayner, Mayor, Longreach Shire – Update on Thomson River flood

0:00Rural Queensland today, Monday morning, 16th of March. You're with Ben Dobin across the Resonate Broadcast Network. Tony Rainer, the Longreach Regional Council. Mayor joins us this morning and just an update. Tony, good morning. Thanks so much for being with us. A good morning, Ben and good news this morning with the Thompson River reaching a peak last night of 6.16. A little bit below what the bomb were forecasting, which is great news because we've had water in town. Still there this morning, but no water in houses, which is a huge relief for the whole community. Well, that is great news to hear. I know you closed the lens for a highway 7pm on Saturday, night in anticipation. The aerial shots are quite unbelievable, but the news this morning that no inundation into any home makes a huge relief. So it has peaked and what is obviously now starting to drop. That's right, Ben.

1:00Yeah, it's 6.14, five o'clock this morning. I went down in the wee hours of this morning to check it all out and it's pretty, pretty steady and will remain so. I think for a good solid weekend longer because there's still a large amount of water to come down from the upper catchment. Yesterday in Madabara, early in the day, the Thompson and all their lands froze. They were still a couple of metres above the bridge there. All that water is still coming down, but it won't cause any flooding in long-reach township. It'll just be a magnificent flood for all of those communities along that river system all the way down into Lake Air. So, I mean, this is the story that everybody's going to go to. Then Lake Air is going to be spectacular. And we will talk to Danny Schaeon later in the week because he's obviously running some flies down there. But how relieved are the residents? I mean, the weekend would have been a sit-hold weight sort of situation

2:00just when it does peak. And I know that you had time to evacuate a lot of people with furniture out of their houses. But how relieved is the community this morning? I certainly those people on the southern side, part of the western side and the northern side on the edge of the flood plain, where historically a big flood will come into the house. They were very relieved. The forecast and prediction from bomb was quite high. It was going for a record. In fact, 6.9 plus. But flood forecasting is a bit like weather forecasting. It's not an exact science plan. And there's always a bit of leeway both sides, so fortunately, it went in our favor. And there were a few reasons for that. It didn't rain for the whole week. One of the feeder systems, the watcher can creek. That's the old gin creek. It didn't run high. It had a very low run in it. So all of those factors came into favor for us

3:00and allowed the most of the flood water to get away safely. And having said that, that highway that's out there, that five kilometres are highway the water. And waves were just starting to lap over on one side. So I've got very close. But we've been very fortunate. And we'll just carefully monitor it for the next week and make sure everyone gets through safely been. Yeah, and hopefully the tourists can come as well because what you have got is an unbelievable season out there. Give me an update on supplies. Fuel, groceries. How is your town fairing with just general day-to-day stuff for living? We've been very fortunate in between the peaks and the lows. Trucks were getting in from both towns for law, Brisbane, or East from Rockampton. So we've seen the road trains come in. And sometimes they had massive trips to do. When the Alice was over between Barcaldon and Blackhall, they had to deviate out through Isisford and back into Longreach.

4:03And that's the first time that that community would have seen massive mining trucks with mining equipment on come through Isisford. But the roads held up well. And supplies have been good at this stage. So yeah, look, it's going back to the tourist season. Then it will be an incredible season. The bird life out there is just spectacular at the moment. The five kilometer in land ocean, as I call it, to the west of Longreach. And it's just full of bird life. And that'll continue for the whole year, for the whole tourist season. So we look forward to welcoming tens of thousands of visitors to the outback. And that's the thing. There was always going to be a tourist season. But these kind of years are once in a lifetime, because of what happens. And if ever there was a time to get into a outback Queensland, not just only Longreach, but all through out there. There's just going to be some spectacular scenery. And once in a lifetime opportunity to see this kind of water.

5:05I'm just so pleased that Longreach is safe. Tony, I know it's a, you know, the cleanup through the streets. And obviously there's going to be some work to be done. But nowhere near what the destruction that was being predicted. So some relief for everybody this morning on this Monday morning. Absolutely. Then yeah, there'll be a spring in the step of everyone in town this morning. And it'll be business as usual very quickly. Appreciate your time. Thanks for giving us an update. Making yourself available. Great news. The Thompson River has peaked. No inundation in houses. And also from that some real relief for a lot of residents in Longreach. Tony Ray, Mayor of the Longreach Regional Council, appreciate your time. Thanks so much for being with us, mate. Good on you. Thanks, Ben. Good on you. We're going to take a break. Come back. This is rural Queensland today. It's Monday morning, the 16th of March. You're with Ben Dobin across the Resonate Broadcasting Network.