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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-06-05 Daily Xml
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Innamincka Flood

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:25): My question is to the Minister for Emergency Services and Correctional Services. Can the minister tell the council about her recent trip to Innamincka?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (Minister for Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Autism, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:25): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest in the Innamincka community and the floods. We often hear in this chamber about the biggest, fastest and record-breaking events. Today, I again finding myself using these very words, but this time it is a record that is hard to comprehend until you see it.

Right now, a flood covering an area approximately half the size of Tasmania is moving across the Innamincka community and the surrounding stations and those communities. It is remarkable to be speaking about floods in South Australia at record levels in the middle of a drought. This flood wasn't caused by local rain but by water flows from across the border from an ex-tropical cyclone that hit Queensland weeks ago.

SES volunteers were deployed ahead of the waters arriving, many of them to places they have never been to before. But they went, as they always do, to help people in their time of need. Their early arrival meant that they could focus on prevention, constructing the DefenCell around the township of Innamincka. When I spoke with Travis and Laura, who had only taken over the management of the Innamincka pub three weeks before the floodwaters came—it wasn't the best timing—they told me how tough it had been but also how it had brought their community together.

At its peak, I believe the arrival of SES crews more than doubled the local population. They built the DefenCell and coordinated aerial support and worked side by side with the local community. A sign of this appreciation is now hanging above the front bar of the Innamincka pub: a piece of the DefenCell that has been signed by the volunteers who helped to erect this DefenCell, an insurance policy for that local community. We know this is an important thing as it symbolises what the SES is about and how they support our local communities.

Black Hawk helicopters were on standby, a sight few will ever forget and a sight that is rare in the local community. They were used to airlift motorbikes so that station workers could move 2,600 head of cattle to higher ground—an economic muster worth, I believe and am advised, $6 million.

In visiting the region, it was impossible not to be captivated by the sheer scale of the flood, watching it crawl across the desert and into some of Australia's most iconic beef country and environmental landscapes like Lake Eyre. We stopped at Mungeranie to meet with local producers and listened to many people, including Sandra, who I have come to know well in recent weeks. It was a privilege to meet with her in her local community at the Mungerannie pub.

Members of key government departments joined us on this visit to hear, to learn and to understand more about these record-breaking floods. To Sandra, David, Tim, and the many station families who took the time to share their experiences, thank you. To Mack and Cindy, thank you for your warm welcome at the Mungerannie Hotel.

Later that evening, we joined the Innamincka community for a meal and a fireside chat. We heard stories of resilience and of hardship and about how proud they are of their community. This town has seen floods before, and markers around Innamincka record each of these floods. Now there is a new high-water mark, a new story etched into the landscape: 2025, the year the flood came again.

As a start, the Malinauskas government has worked with the Albanese government to activate freight subsidies through the disaster recovery management agreements. To Janett, Barney, Mick, Anthony and all who shared their time and stories: thank you. You have been heard.

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