Record WA flooding cuts off town of Derby

Aaron Bunch | January 5, 2023

Road access to the town of Derby has been cut as more than 50 Australian Defence Force personnel wing their way to Western Australia’s flood-ravaged Kimberley region.

Heavy rain dumped by ex-tropical cyclone Ellie has already led to once-in-a-century flooding around Fitzroy Crossing, prompting the evacuation of the remote town and dozens of Indigenous communities.

The slow-moving weather system is hovering 400km away, and near Broome where more than 160mm of rain has fallen at the airport in the past 24 hours.

It’s expected to remain in the area for the remainder of Thursday before rapidly moving southeast towards the Northern Territory on Friday.

Flooding has forced authorities to close a 700km section of the Great Northern Highway between Broome and Halls Creek, isolating Derby, a town of about 3000 people.

It is WA’s only road transport route to the state’s north and is likely to be cut for months after a major bridge suffered significant damage at Fitzroy Crossing.

Meanwhile, an ADF C-130 Hercules is understood to be attempting to fly from Perth to Broome but may have to land at Port Hedland due to the severe weather in the Kimberley.

The Fitzroy River peaked at Fitzroy Crossing late on Wednesday, reaching a record 15.8 metres, Emergency WA confirmed on Thursday.

About 60,000 cubic metres of water per second has been flowing down the swollen waterway, which snakes its way to the coast at Derby, north of Broome, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Fitzroy Crossing’s evacuation centre in the town of about 1500 was at capacity on Wednesday, with plans to open another amid the murky floodwaters that aren’t expected to fully subside for weeks.

The town’s supermarket and dozens of homes have been inundated and only a few streets remain above the waterline, with people, livestock and wildlife clambering for the remaining dry ground.

Pastoralists and livestock have also been significantly impacted by the flooding but the extent of the losses won’t be known until the water recedes.

Earlier, Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said the ADF planes were having difficulty getting into the area due to the weather.

“In the meantime, the West Australian government has been able to source some of its own aircraft and relocate people,” he told ABC Radio. 

Authorities are particularly concerned for about 50 remote Indigenous communities outside of Fitzroy Crossing, comprising several hundred people.

“We’re concerned about the risk of isolation, potentially for weeks, for those communities,” Mr Watt said.

“There will be people who don’t necessarily need to be relocated, but will have some issues obtaining food, vegetables, all sorts of other things and it will be important to make sure that we can resupply those kinds of communities.”