'Livestock disaster': Thousands more cattle die after aid mix-up
The Defence Force has cited safety concerns in its decision not to fly tonnes of hay to flood-ravaged communities in western Queensland.
Farmers, graziers and agricultural bodies say the delayed fodder delivery has cost the lives of thousands upon thousands of cattle.
“There is no doubt this is the greatest livestock disaster that Australia has ever seen,” grazier Roger Jefferies said.
An island amid flood waters on Cowan Downs Station at Julia Creek has seen the community come together to save itself.
Before Sunday, most aid and assistance was from fellow farmers sharing their own supplies via helicopter.
“[These are] great wonderful cattle people that are just virtually walking around in a state of shock and having trouble getting over it… having trouble even talking,” Mr Jefferies said.
A temporary fodder depot has been set up near Winton for trucks to drop off and helicopters to pick up.
“It’s coming from all over the place from very kind donations from graziers all around the country,” AgForce’s Michael Guerin said.
There have been 146 locations with a total of 120,000 cattle which have requested aid in a crisis zone now spanning some 20 million hectares of farmland.
But they needed fodder days ago.
Several Defence Force aircraft have been made available by the Defence Force for supply runs.
AgForce revealed a Globemaster C17 was ready to take off on Tuesday from Amberly loaded with hay.
But it never left the tarmac.
“There was an initial problem in terms of fodder drops happening outside of the local disaster management committee,” Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said.
“Industry had advised exactly where to drop the hay. We had the hay available Tuesday and had it wrapped as the Airforce asked us to do.”
Yet the Defence Force has said it does “not carry or transport hay in aircraft as it is a fire and safety hazard.”
A spokesperson instead said the priority for farmers and the communities was aviation fuel.
On Sunday, one of the C17s finally got on its way touching down in Mt Isa carrying over 10,000 litres of aviation fuel.
From there, local pilots will be able to fill up and continue the life saving supply drops.
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