As Queenslanders continue their preparations for the wet season, authorities are taking extra steps to prevent food insecurity in the state’s Far North.
Currently, across the north of the state, there are multiple flood warnings, watches, and severe weather warnings active, with road closures already in place across the north-west.
With more rain on the way, it is possible roads could close along the Bruce Highway once again this week.
When a once-in-a-century flood wreaked havoc on Ingham earlier this year, it also took out the main supply route between Cairns and Townsville along the Bruce Highway.
Communities from Cairns to the Cape faced extended shortages as the flooding event closed or restricted 165 state-controlled roads across the Central and North Queensland regions, according to Transport and Main Roads.
Supermarkets have stockpiled extra supplies this season, and both the state and federal governments have announced multiple funding programs to improve the Bruce Highway.
A once-in-a-century flood hit Ingham in early 2025, cutting off the Bruce Highway. (ABC News: Sophie Johnson)
Cairns local Jay Baird, who has lived in the area for 25 years, said running low on supplies and feeling isolated from the rest of the state was not a new experience.
But this February was noticeably worse due to the extreme amount of rain.
“At the time I was living in Mareeba, but, in general, in the whole place, it was quite difficult to find pretty much most things, especially the fresher produce,” he said.
“It’s a bit of a reality of living in North Queensland. You’ll find at least once a year [the roads and rail] get cut when we get our floods.”
Addressing food security
The federal member for Leichardt, Matt Smith, said from Cairns and beyond, towns ran out of food.
Ahead of the coming wet season, Mr Smith has been in contact with Woolworths and Sea Swift to stockpile essential goods, taking precautions to prevent a repeat of the shortage.
Supermarket shelves were stripped bare across northern Queensland in February’s floods. (ABC News: Sophie Johnson)
“The reason that I wrote to Woolworths is because Woolworths is in Weipa and they also supply a lot of the [Community Enterprise Queensland stores] around the Cape — just to ensure that those supply lines were taken care of,” he said.
The state government has been working with Coles and Woolworths to improve storage capabilities and reserve extra pallets of food in Cairns and Townsville.
In a statement, Woolworths’ assistant state manager for Queensland, Sophie Hobden, said the supermarket had taken proactive steps to increase stock levels in the Far North ahead of the wet season.
“We have positioned six shipping containers in Cairns and other locations across the region, each filled with essential items to be deployed to nearby stores in the event of a natural disaster,” she said.
Matt Smith has been working with stakeholders to avoid a food shortage this wet season. (ABC News: Sophie Johnson)
Fixing the roads
Les Blennerhassett is the director of Blenners Transport, one of the biggest freight companies in northern Queensland.
His main issue is with the roads around Gairloch and the Seymour River, which consistently close due to flooding.
He is calling for these sections to be raised higher.
“We’ve still got the same crossing that’s 50 [to] 80 years old, and we’re still living with it every wet season in North Queensland,” Mr Blennerhassett said.
“We can’t get bananas out. We can’t get fruit and veg and groceries into Cairns at those times.”
Les Blennerhassett wants the Bruce Highway to be raised higher around Ingham. (ABC News: Sophie Johnson)
Queensland Minister for Transport and Main Roads Brent Mickleberg said state funding for the Bruce Highway includes $50 million for upgrades north of Ingham between Gairloch and Ripple Creek.
“This work will provide some safety upgrades, it’ll replace culverts to improve the drainage, widen the road, and it will, importantly, lift that section of the highway to be more flood-resilient,” he said.
The minister said the project was about reducing the amount of time the road was inundated.
“Currently, the average time of inundation is in excess of a day for that section of road. We want to ensure that we meaningfully reduce that. That design work is all going through right now,” he said.
Flooding at Gairloch is a common occurrence during the wet season. (ABC News: Sophie Johnson)
That project is currently out for tender. A detailed design is also underway for a separate, $48 million project to upgrade the Gairloch floodway.
Mr Mickleberg said the projects should commence next year.
But Mr Baird has little faith in funding announcements.
“They seem to have been chipping away at the roads for the last 20 years, and they still haven’t changed much,” he said.
“Ingham seems to be in a perpetual state of road works, and yet nothing seems to have changed in terms of that flooding.”
