Wreckage of freight train, toxic cargo could take weeks to clear in Queensland
Police have revealed it could take a month to clear the wreckage of a freight train and its toxic cargo from a flood-zone in north-west Queensland.
Salvage operations are being held up by wet weather, which has cut roads and isolated communities across the top half of the state.
Twenty-six giant canisters of reinforced steel lie scattered along the rail line at Julia Creek.
They are full, loaded with 200,000 litres of sulphuric acid.
Three workers were injured when the train derailed on Sunday morning, 200km east of Mount Isa.
“There is heavy mud and unstable ground between the road and where the incident site is so it’s a difficult area to move around in,” said Inspector Trevor Kidd from Mount Isa District Police.
Hazmat teams are inspecting the sight. It is feared three of the canisters are leaking.
“About two kilometres around it, no one can get near it. They are not letting anyone get near it. That’s why, even when the water goes down, they have got to escort people through,” said David Wyld, a Julia Creek hotel publican.
It could take a month to clear the wreckage.
“Nothing will happen quickly as far as the recovery goes,” said Insp. Kidd
Wet weather is suspected of causing the freight train to derail. It crashed just after Julia Creek endured its wettest December day in 14 years.
Highways across the northwest of Queensland are cut, communities are isolated and travellers are stranded.
“Do not travel out to this part of the world unless you have to,” said Insp. Kidd.
A tropical low in the Northern Territory, which has dumped 700mm of rain in three days, should cross into Queensland on Tuesday.
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Forecast to track south-east, it could soak the drought declared Queensland outback for the next five days.
Some rivers, including the Flinders and the Gilbert, are already in flood but it is not the end of the crippling drought.
“It is really difficult to tell exactly how much people are going to get because the rainfall as always with these types of situations is very patchy,” said Stephen Hadley from the Weather Bureau.
There was 200mm of rainfall around Hughenden between Sunday night and Monday morning, while on the east coast, there have been falls of up to 100mm in Townsville.
A southerly surge which rushed through southeast Queensland on Sunday evening is predicted to collide with a powerful monsoon trough north of Townsville on Tuesday.
The Bureau of meteorology has issued two severe weather warnings.
Areas affected by possible flash-flooding on Tuesday include Ingham, Innisfail, Cardwell, Tully, Rollingstone and Babinda between Cairns and Townsville.
While unusually high tides on Monday night could see the highest tide of the year exceeded by around half a metre in Mornington Island and Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
“It's not expected to move much in the next few days and that will result in further showers and thunderstorms," a BOM forecaster said.
