Among the heartbreaking stories Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk heard in Cloncurry last week was that of landholders Sally and Lindsay Allan.
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The Allans had to be rescued by helicopter on Tuesday February 5 after suffering an unprecedented flooded on their cattle property, Longford, 100km south-east of Cloncurry, where they have lived for almost 30 years.
"At the moment we've got about 1800 head there, we've been so drought affected for the last six years our numbers are well down," Mr Allan said the day the Premier arrived.
"So when it rained first we were delighted, but it turned into a monster."
In the week leading to the floods they had 456mm in five days but that wasn't the worst of it.
"It wasn't so much our rain as the rain that fell upstream in the hills," he said.
"We are on the Fullerton River and our house is virtually on the levee bank and never been inundated supposedly," .
"Certainly not in our time and most of the locals say it's never got up to the house."
Mr Allan said as they were unable to check on their stock as the water rose.
"The problem now is we've had no sunshine for nearly a fortnight and it's getting colder each night," he said.
"A lot of cattle have low energy reserves and they are ploughing through mud and don't have anything to eat and they end up dying of exposure."
It wasn't just the cattle they had to worry about as the waters gradually approached the house.
"We were on an ever decreasing island," he said.
On Tuesday February 6, the water had entered the house leaving the Allans with no option but to seek help to be evacuated.
"We rang the police in McKinlay and they rang the shire council in Julia Creek and they rang the police in Mount Isa and they organised it," he said.
"When we left there was three inches of water in the house."
We rang the police in McKinlay and they rang the shire council in Julia Creek and they rang the police in Mount Isa
- Lindsay Allan
They were airlifted to Cloncurry and since the disaster stayed in Sally's father's house in Cloncurry.
Lindsay was later able to get back to the property where he spent three and a half days cleaning out the mud and with road access restored on Tuesday February 12 the couple are now back at home.
He also estimates he has lost 400 head.
"We won't know the full figure until we start mustering and that will be at least a month away," he said.
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
