3 days ago
Erosion and topsoil loss after flooding in western Queensland
While parts of western Queensland have turned green following record flooding, other areas could take decades to recover after the top layer of soil, which is vital for pasture growth, was washed away.
The sheer velocity and volume of the floodwater washed away up to 40 centimetres of topsoil, along with fencing, roads and livestock.
"We've got big areas here that have just lost all the topsoil," Quilpie property owner Jon Mooring said.
"There's great piles of silt that are half a metre deep."
The Bulloo River cuts through the middle of Jon and Kerri Mooring's Quilpie property, and during the March floods the river and a lake on the property met for the first time in 10 years.
"When the two systems got together, it (the water) was rising nearly two feet an hour and the road of that went on for nearly four nights past our house," Mr Mooring said.
Four years of restoration and thousands of dollars of work were washed away in just a matter of days as a "sea of water" took over the landscape.
He said it could take up to 20 years for the landscape to recover from some of the more extensive flooding damage, such as scouring and erosion.
Topsoil is the top layer of soil on the ground, usually up to 20 centimetres deep, and is rich in nutrients and organic matter, making it essential for vegetation growth.
Environmental damage like loss of topsoil, erosion and weed spread were often the longest lasting impacts of widespread flooding.
Geoff Penton, operations manager at natural resources management group Desert Channels Queensland, said the impact of the floods varied.
"In some areas, it's a great season and in other areas, it's devastating, and they can be literally feet apart," Mr Penton said.
"There's many areas where the water, both the volume and the velocity, has stripped the topsoil off entirely.
"Some places where that erosion is settled it's drowned pastures in a foot of mud."
Mr Penton said it was likely to take "several seasons" to see pasture response, and it would be a long and expensive road to repairing the environmental damage.
"What will help accelerate this is if we can secure some flood recovery investment from the state and federal government," he said.
While he acknowledged the current funding options from the state and federal governments were a start, Mr Penton said attention would need to shift to recovering the environment.
"The environmental recovery usually comes substantially later," Mr Penton said.
"That's under consideration by both levels of government at the moment."
The Queensland Reconstruction Authority said in a statement that $186.75 million in extraordinary assistance had been approved in response to the floods through joint Commonwealth-state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
"The Australian and Queensland governments are working together to provide all support necessary for flood recovery in western Queensland," the statement read.
