Cyclone Alfred

The last week has been an interesting one for everyone in southern Queensland and northern NSW. The long, drawn-out threat of cyclone Alfred finally eventuated and was only a tropical low by the time it hit land around Brisbane. However, that did not mean that everyone was spared. Extremely high rainfall and intense winds still occurred in many areas of northern NSW and southern Queensland.

Before cyclone Alfred hit the coast, there were reports of extremely high rainfall in areas of northern NSW including over 600ml in Dorrigo just west of Coffs Harbour. Dorrigo is used to high rainfall but even for them this was a lot. Areas of the gold coast including Jacobs Well were not spared receiving around 600ml. Many other areas received around 400ml of rain including Lismore in NSW and Dayboro just north of Brisbane. The scenic rim, including around Beaudesert, received very high rainfall as well and was impacted very badly.

A lot of people lost power for lengthy periods of time. Winds caused falling trees and extensive damage to infrastructure. Although cyclone Alfred was only a tropical low by the time it hit the coast, it still caused a lot of problems. It will likely be months before the full extent is understood and farmers have fully recovered.

It will be important for government to get a good handle on what happened and assist farmer’s rebuild. We will all need to figure out who was impacted the most and ensure that they receive the support required to rebuild. Just because the media hype has gone away, it doesn’t mean that everything is instantly better for all those people including farmers who were badly impacted. We do not want to see cyclone Alfred causing the end of dairy farmers who were most severely impacted.

Eric Danzi - CEO, eastAUSmilk