Waiting game for mine as FNQ deals with deluge

The Mount Carbine mine site has been without power since Wednesday and floodwaters are preventing new work crews getting in as far north Queensland is hammered by a post-cyclone deluge. A skeleton crew of a few workers who are local residents is holding the fort on-site while also assisting the local community, including through the provision of generators and diesel. The EQ Resources-owned mining and processing operation is located 120km by sealed road north-west of Cairns. Chief executive officer Kevin MacNeill said operations had halted on Tuesday night as former Tropical Cyclone Jasper approached and were yet to resume. "Roads are blocked off from flooding, in all directions really, into the mine site currently. And there's no power at the mine site. The crews I don't think have been able to get in because of the water crossing the roads," he said. Chief executive officer Kevin MacNeill. Mr MacNeill said the company was expecting water levels to drop enough over the next couple of days to allow workers to get back into the site from Port Douglas or Mareeba. Mr MacNeill, who lives in Port Douglas, said the rain started on Wednesday morning and had not let up. "It has just been pouring rain. It's crazy," he said. "I live by the golf course here and we certainly have some serious water holes. They're now lakes. "We're okay here. But we're seeing lots of roads flooded, lots of damage and trees stripped and all that kind of stuff. So it's a real mess." Why is it so? - expert explains CQUniversity climate expert Adjunct Professor Steve Turton described the rainfall across far north Queensland in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Jasper as unprecedented. Widespread flooding had seen thousands of people evacuated, roads extensively damaged and residents in the Cairns northern beaches cut off by floodwaters, he said. "Some rain gauges in the Barron and Daintree River catchments recorded more than 2m of rain over recent days, and more rain is expected," he said. "Water levels in the lower Barron River have smashed the previous record set by devastating floods in March 1977. "On Monday morning, the Daintree River was more than 2m higher than the previous 118-year-old flood level, recorded in 2019. "The full impacts of the flood are not yet clear. But there’s likely to be significant damage to properties and public infrastructure, and negative effects for industries such as tourism and agriculture. Recovery is likely to take many months." 'Sweet spot' for torrential rain Tropical Cyclone Jasper crossed the coast north of Cairns on Wednesday last week, tracking over the remote Indigenous community of Wujal Wujal and being downgraded to a tropical low. By Saturday morning, a significant rainfall and flood emergency was unfolding across a 360km swathe from Cooktown to Ingham, Professor Turton said. "The ex-cyclone stalled just inland from the southeast Gulf of Carpentaria, creating a sweet spot for torrential rain known as a 'stationary convergence zone'," he said. Transport and Main Roads Queensland released this image of damage on the Palmerston Highway. "Incredibly moist tropical winds collided over a narrow zone between Port Douglas and Innisfail. This effect converged with northerly winds from the Gulf of Carpentaria and southeast trade winds from the Coral Sea. "Local mountain ranges created extra uplift. All this led to non-stop torrential rain for 48 hours. "As a result, an emergency situation rapidly grew across Cairns and the Barron River delta to its immediate north." While it was too soon to attribute the current extreme rain and flooding to climate change, Professor Turton said local and state authorities would need to grapple with how to deal with the 'new normal' of extreme weather events.

Waiting game for mine as FNQ deals with deluge

Industry Queensland

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