Two separate groups of travellers have been stranded for almost two weeks by floodwaters in remote areas of Cape York in Queensland.
Brad Allan, the manager of the Archer River Roadhouse, has been assisting the groups with food drops. He told the ABC a burst of late wet-season rain had caught people unawares, with hundreds of millimetres in rainfall measured from the Daintree to across the cape since Easter.
“That’s what’s caught people out, you know, travelling up and it was reasonably dry, and they were able to access some of these places, and then once we started getting this rain, because everything is wet, it doesn’t take much to bring those rivers up,” he said. “Coming up to Easter had been a dry spell, and there hadn’t been a lot of rain on the horizon … but you’re never out of the woods until the end of April, because I’ve certainly seen it pretty wet up here in late April.”
Mr Allan said he didn’t think the tourists – who range in age from their 20s to their 50s – expected to get stuck out there that long … but he said they remained in good spirits.
The ABC reports that there is no phone reception for either group, with the closest Telstra tower at least 50 kilometres away.
The end of David Claudie’s driveway at the Wenlock River in Cape York where two tourists made their way through floodwaters to get food. PIC: David Claudie / ABC
Mr Claudie, the CEO of Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation, lives not far from where both groups are camped.
He said he has been visited by both groups of people and has shared food and supplies with them.
“They’re all safe. It’s just that they are running out of food,” he told the ABC. “We want to help but you can’t pull blood out of a stone … they’ve been offering me money for food and smokes and tobacco, but what am I going to spend it on out here?”
He said that he always sticks up well ahead of the wet season.
“I’m in between the Wenlock and the Pascoe Rivers, so I’m really isolated but, every wet season, we use up all of our reserves in order to survive,” he said. “People like us already have enough stress on our shoulders. We don’t need any more.”
An unexpected deluge has also caught out a number of travellers on South Australia’s Oodnadatta Track, with several caravans becoming bogged.
Travellers don’t seem to be aware of the Top End weather pre and post wet season…
Earlier and late wet season rain and storms patterns can occur so it is important to watch and study the weather patterns.
Any lows hanging around northern Australia with a high in the bight can mean unstable weather in northern Australia.
After 46 years in the Top End you get a feel for the earlier and late rains..but there is always a degree of uncertainty.
So..Everywhere you go…always take the weather with you…!
Cheers.