It has been confirmed over half a million cattle died in last year's North West Queensland flood disaster.
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An official shire-by-shire study of the losses experienced in the February 2019 North West Flood has been released, totalling 504,479 head of livestock.
The Queensland Department of Agriculture study states that flooding with wet and chilled conditions caused the death of an estimated 457,000 head of cattle, 43,000 sheep, 710 horses and 3000 goats across an area of 11.4 million hectares.
The analysis was carried out in September 2019, which also recorded additional losses of 22,000 km of fencing, 29,000 km of farm roads and tracks were destroyed or damaged, 2320km of poly pipe and 1350 tanks and troughs destroyed or damaged. Other losses included farm machinery such as motorbikes and graders, equipment such as tools and generators, stock and domestic dams, livestock handling facilities, sheds and houses.
The survey covered the Local Government Areas of Burke, Carpentaria, Cloncurry, Flinders, McKinlay, Richmond and Winton shires.
Of the seven local government areas surveyed, McKinlay Shire was the worst affected, with cattle losses totalling 132,614 head, and sheep, 11,073 head. Cloncurry and Carpentaria shires were next, with 85,899 cattle and 79,513 cattle respectively.
McKinlay was also the worst affected by fencing losses, calculated at 6411km, followed by Richmond Shire with 6087km.
As for affected producers getting back on their feet, nearly 70 per cent (2,963 km) of the damaged and destroyed fences were reported to be replaced and repaired.
Nearly a quarter of livestock were reported to be replaced, and 46 per cent of people were not currently restocking. Many respondents of the study said that they have insufficient pasture to restock.
An estimated 109,000 cattle and 8,700 sheep had been restocked in total.
About 83 percent of producers indicated they had applied for grants, predominantly been Special Disaster Assistance Recovery Grant (SDARG) grants of up to $75,000.
More than $44 million dollars was approved in SDARG grants with high-impacted LGAs of McKinlay, Richmond, Flinders and Winton claiming the most.
DAF collaborated with Local Governments, AgForce, Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority and the North Queensland Livestock Industry Recovery Agency to carry out the survey of livestock owners, as the basis for a more accurate damage assessment.
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