Crops doomed as Australia township wins reprieve from floodwaters
By Andrew Fraser, The Australian
9 February 2012
FLOODED St George in southern Queensland is facing a delayed hit from the surging Balonne River while more than a fifth of the surrounding cotton crop faces ruin. The Balonne yesterday peaked at 13.95m, and is expected to stay near that record mark for days, frustrating the hopes of the town’s largely evacuated population that they might return. As attention turns to the township of Dirranbandi, which is next in the firing line of the flood, and NSW towns Walgett and Burke, the few residents who rode out the flood in St George were still working to keep the town of about 3000 safe behind earth levees. The town’s sewage system also came under pressure yesterday as holding tanks were swamped by floodwaters, cutting off service to about a quarter of homes. Fortunately, most are empty. Mayor Donna Stewart said this still represented a health risk and would need to be addressed before residents could return. […] One reason the river is levelling out is that it is spreading out further upstream, with the Balonne-feeding Maranoa River breaking its banks at Cashmere West station about 20km upstream of St George. This water is spreading out over the farming country near St George rather than running through the town and is probably taking a millimetre or two off the flood peak, which is saving several houses from further inundation. The water from this stream re-enters the Balonne River at a point downstream from St George, sparing houses but threatening large cotton fields near the town. The town’s economy is largely dependent on the cotton fields around it. Last year’s crop was worth a record $640 million, and this year’s crop was estimated to be even larger. An aerial inspection of the area by The Australian revealed several places where levees had been breached and floodwaters were racing into cotton fields. Senator Barnaby Joyce, who is based in St George, said about 15 per cent of the crop had been lost and considerably more was at risk of being inundated and therefore worthless. “We’ve already lost a large section of the crop and we certainly don’t want there to be any more inundation, but it’s going to be very hard to know exactly how much we’ve lost until the waters come down,” he said. […]
