3 minute read
Far northern deluge
BY RENEE CLUFF
Six cane growing regions have been impacted by record-breaking flooding in the wake of ex Tropical Cyclone Jasper.
Mossman, Cairns and Innisfail districts bore the brunt of last month’s rain event, with some areas recording more than two metres of rain in six days.
Australian Canegrower spoke to Mossman CANEGROWERS Chairman Matthew Watson as the situation was still unfolding.
“The caretaker at our farm in the Daintree had to be rescued,” he said. “The whole family was trapped on the roof of the house for six hours. My uncle in Lower Daintree was also trapped on his tractor. Lots of machinery has gone under and there is a lot of plant cane that has been washed out. We lost power, telephones and internet. All we had in terms of communication was the radio.”
In Cairns, the water reached 40-percent higher than the flood levels of the previous record set in 1977. CANEGROWERS Cairns Chairman
Stephen Calcagno said the rain delivered extensive flooding to cane fields.
“There has been a lot of young cane inundated,” he said. “It’s fair to say a lot of that young cane will be lost. We had that wet June to August so we couldn’t get the cane off in that period and that set us back about three months. There’s an ongoing impact now.”
It was a similar situation further south. Innisfail CANEGROWERS chairman Joseph Marano said high rainfall totals in his district are not unusual, however the December event flooded areas that hadn’t been inundated before.
“There’ll be losses across the district, but we can’t put a number on it yet,” he said. “We definitely won’t have a record crop in 2024.”
Water also went through the Australian Sugar Heritage Centre at Mourilyan, which houses the CANEGROWERS Innisfail office and the Australian Sugar Heritage Museum.
“There are some places pretty bad off,” Joe said. “I think people were shocked by how high it came up.
“But other districts are worse off than us.”
At the time of going to print, miller MSF Sugar was still assessing impacts to its infrastructure, however its three factories in South Johnstone, Gordonvale and on the Tablelands were not damaged.
South Johnstone Mill Manager Barry O’Brien said he hadn’t seen flooding like it before.
We get a lot of floods, but this is the biggest I have seen
“Most of our damage will be around lines, washouts and debris on bridges but that’s all stuff that can be sorted out before the next season.”
To a lesser extent, Tully, Herbert River and Tableland districts were also affected by the widespread rain event.
