Australian PM tours Queensland flood disaster zone, where rivers have cut off towns

Cattle wade through floodwaters after heavy rainfall near Julia Creek in northwest Queensland. Photo / Handout, Queensland's office of the Premier, AFP

Swollen rivers have cut off towns and swept away thousands of livestock in Outback Australia, authorities said as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flew into the disaster zone yesterday.

Heavy downpours in recent days have flooded vast inland tracts of Queensland.

More than 16,000 livestock are missing or dead, state authorities have said, while hundreds of kilometres of fencing have been ruined.

Albanese flew into the mining town of Cloncurry to assess the damage, more than 1500km inland from Brisbane.

Some cattle survived by crowding together on small hills cresting above the flood waters, photos posted on social media showed.

Queensland authorities used helicopters to drop bales of fodder near the surviving herds.

A flooded area in Cloncurry Shire in northwest Queensland. Swollen rivers have cut off towns and swept away thousands of livestock. Photo / Handout, Queensland's office of the Premier, AFP

Some towns, such as the small hamlet of Winton, have been entirely cut off by floodwaters.

One man slogged through knee-deep mud for almost 40km to find help after his car got stuck, rescue service LifeFlight said.

A helicopter crew eventually found him and plucked him to safety after tracing his footprints.

Researchers have repeatedly warned that climate change amplifies the risk of natural disasters such as bushfires, floods and cyclones.

More than 100,000 cattle, sheep, goats and horses died in floods that swept Queensland in March and April last year.

Outback Queensland is one of the nation’s biggest cattle fattening grounds.

Most of the time its flat plains are dry and inhospitable.

But cattle gorge themselves on the pastures that sprout whenever wet-season rains fill the dry creek beds that snake through the region.

-Agence France-Presse