Floodwaters are receding across Queensland's south-west with authorities saying a clearer picture is starting to emerge of the extent of the damage.
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00:00We're here at the Warrago River in Charleville where the water has completely inundated those
00:07low-lying roads.
00:08It's remained at major flood level for quite a few days now and that's because it's a fairly
00:12complex river system, multiple rivers, streams and creeks flow into it and anything that
00:17really happens upstream has that flow-on effect downstream so we are expecting a lot of those
00:23renewed river rises.
00:24It's a similar story over in Longreach at the Thompson River, again they're sitting
00:28at a major flood level despite the fact that a lot of that water has significantly receded
00:33in the last few days.
00:35There are dozens of flood warnings across the state but a lot of those major flood warnings
00:39still remain in place for the southwest of Queensland.
00:43Here in Charleville it's effectively become a massive hub in terms of getting out supplies
00:48and much-needed hay and fodder to a lot of those communities that have effectively become
00:53inland islands over the last few days.
00:56A lot of residents that are here right now are actually residents from nearby isolated
01:00communities like Thargominda and Yoolo and they are patiently waiting for a lot of those
01:05roads to reopen, particularly into Quilpie to be able to go start to assess the extent
01:11of the damage.
01:12Now yesterday, for the first time in nearly a week, the road from Longreach to Jundah
01:16officially opened up and that allowed people to start to get a first-hand insight to what
01:21exactly they were coming home to and really some of those stories that have come out of
01:25there have been extremely harrowing and heartbreaking.
01:29So many tales of survival.
01:31The Bureau says that while rain seems like it's going to be stopping for the next few
01:36days at least, the water, however, is likely here to stay for quite a while.
01:40Good news is, obviously from a rainfall standpoint, you know, very dry and clear out there this
01:45weekend into early next week but there's just still so much water in our rivers, creeks
01:50and streams and we do have major flooding still occurring on pretty much all of our
01:55rivers in southwest Queensland and even a number of our rivers through central and even
01:59getting up into northern Queensland as well.
02:01The latest data from the State Government has indicated that they've conducted about
02:05126 disaster surveys across the region.
02:09It is worth noting that there are a lot more that need to be conducted but that has indicated
02:14that the stock losses have climbed to about 152,000 across the region and that includes
02:2075,000 cattle, about 68,000 sheep and more than 8,000 goats and other livestock that
02:27have either been reported missing or dead.
02:30And just to give everyone an idea of how extensive this is, for a lot of people here in the region,
02:36this is really their entire livelihood that's been wiped out in a matter of days and really
02:40a lot of that adrenaline from the last two weeks of just working on surviving and trying
02:45to rescue as many livestock is really starting to wear off.
02:49So a lot of that trauma and the devastating impacts is starting to really sink in.
02:54Now the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has touched down in Longreach.
02:57He is touring a number of flood affected zones and speaking with graziers as well as primary producers.
03:04He's announced a disaster allowance package that's been activated by the Commonwealth.
03:10That allows and subsidises up to 13 weeks of wages that have been lost during this event.
03:16It comes after the Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, also touched down last Monday and
03:21he visited a lot of Western Queensland and pledged $10 million to improve weather radars
03:26to the region.
03:27But for many primary producers and many people that are here in the outback, they know that
03:32this recovery effort is going to be mammoth and it will take a lot more than just a few
03:36matter of weeks, it's going to be months in terms of the recovery process.