Flood-impacted Queensland towns face extensive repair work

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Evidence remains of floods that hit Queensland back in March and April, covering an area twice the size of Victoria. Just a couple of dozen people live in Adavale, but they all had to be helicoptered out at the height of the floods and were taken here to Quilpie. Businesses have reopened since then, but there's still work to do to repair homes, and many residents say they want the whole town to be relocated.

Transcript

00:00It's a vast country out here, with sunsets that'll take your breath away.

00:14Wildflowers dot the drive, 11 hours west of Brisbane, as we make our way to Adavail.

00:21Four months ago, the town was swamped by an inland sea.

00:26We were just hit with a wall of water after a bomb of rain.

00:30Were you scared?

00:31Yes, yes, yes I was scared.

00:33Christina Zito's cafe was shut for two months while she cleaned up.

00:38Cake and coffee is now back on the menu.

00:40Here you go, that's your orange cake.

00:42But there's still so much more to be done.

00:45So underneath the building, the stumps have been compromised, so the house needs restumping.

00:51Where'd the water come up to?

00:52Well the water came up to here.

00:54The local publican was away during the floods, but returned to a muddy mess.

00:59I saw devastation, because there was rubbish everywhere.

01:03I saw the two toilet blocks out the back of the pub, basically blown away by the water.

01:09But he loves the history of this place, and is not convinced by talk of moving the town.

01:15I personally probably don't really want to move.

01:18I don't know if it'd be the same up on a hill.

01:21But the idea is being investigated, with the council waiting on a report looking into the costs.

01:27Where we're standing here was above our heads of water at the end of the day.

01:31Heidi Cowley hopes they do relocate, for the sake of the kids.

01:35We don't want to put all our blood, sweat and tears and money and everything into rebuilding down here.

01:40If they turn around and go, oh no we're going to move you up there.

01:43Floods in undated towns and farms too.

01:46Latest surveys suggest 110,000 cattle, sheep and goats perished.

01:52Another 106,000 are still missing.

01:558,500 kilometres of fencing was damaged.

02:00But life is returning to the land, while the people wait for answers on their future.

02:05Council keeps saying it's just move on with your life, but how do you do that when there's so much uncertainty?

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