Massive flooding has left parts of the Kimberley completely isolated, with several sections of the Great Northern Highway shut, and supermarkets in Broome and Derby without fresh food.
A huge blanket of water caused by recent storms has engulfed the region, damaging the Logue River Bridge between Broome and Derby and leaving many motorists unable to move.
The West Australian newspaper reports that freight trucks and private vehicles have been stuck at a closed section that has been under water for several days around Roebuck Plains, 38 kilometres south of Broome.
The paper also reports that remote Aboriginal community of Beagle Bay on the Dampier Peninsula has been cut off from the outside world because parts of the unsealed section of the Broome to Cape Leveque Road have become quagmires.
Broome Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Peter Taylor said he was disappointed that a national highway was not as ‘all-weather’ as many people would have expected.
“Although governments have spent millions widening and building new bridges on this route … we still have major disruptions during major rainfall events,” he told the West Australian.
Main Roads WA is expecting to open the Roebuck Plains section of Great Northern Highway next week.
Coles in Broome was expected to fly in supplies today, while Woolworths has hired a barge to deliver essentials from Dampier to the town.
