A rapid trip to the Barkly

At the start of February, Cyclone Yassi hit Cairns. It was a category 5 cyclone and therefore, understandably, caused quite a bit of damage. It was bad to watch the devastation on the television but we didn’t think that it would affect us much. We might get a bit of rain, maybe a bit of wind too, but nothing too bad. You can imagine my surprise when I read in the local paper it would reach Alice Springs as a category 1 cyclone and we could expect widespread flooding. That lunchtime as I walked down the mall I was even more surprised to see people building walls of sandbags in front of their shops and businesses. I’m on the Public Health Counter Disaster Committee for Region 3 and the reports that we’d been given only stated that there might be minor flooding. These businesses were quite a way from the river and would only be reached with very major flooding. That weekend we were told that we might be called upon depending on what happens. It was very unlikely, but we had to be prepared just in case.

That weekend there were a few very heavy passing showers and lots of dark clouds on the horizon. Not the major flooding that the papers said would hit Alice. Not even the minor flooding that the Government had said may happen. The river didn’t flow that weekend. It dribbled over the following week but was that light that you hardly had to slow down when driving across the causeways. The storm passed to the south of Alice Springs. The decision was made however, to start a voluntary evacuation of some of the remote communities. In the end, one community did evacuate some residents. The thing was, they didn’t have anywhere to go. It wasn’t a disaster situation and therefore no shelters were open and the government departments didn’t have any legislative power to do anything really. In the end, the show grounds at Tennant Creek, the closest major town to the community, was opened for the influx of residents who left their community.

On Monday afternoon, I was asked if I wanted to go up to Tennant Creek with another EHO, Aaron Clifford, to do an assessment of the show grounds for environmental health considerations. So after a very busy afternoon booking accommodation, making phone calls to many other government agencies and a lot of paperwork it was confirmed. I was going up to Tennant Creek and would be back on Friday. We left early the next day and were up in Tennant Creek just after lunch. We went straight around to the show grounds and started work. Our job basically involved us checking out the facilities, ensuring the food preparation areas were safe and suitable for use; the ablution facilities were sufficient, in good working order and in a sanitary condition; that the accommodation was safe and sufficient and to basically look for any other environmental health issues that could affect the health of those staying at the grounds. We then had to arrange cleaning of the facilities, use of alternative food preparation and storage facilities and ensure that the necessary precautions were taken to ensure that the health of the residents was not compromised. It involved a lot of meetings with people and seeing what people could do to help. These people were then matched up and everyone was happy. It took us two days to get everything sorted and write our reports on the trip.

A flooded road near Wycliffe Well.

Me at the Devil's Marbles.


Tennant Creek.

It was a good trip up to Tennant Creek and a good learning experience on how do conduct a rapid assessment of an evacuation centre and how to get what you need through meetings, phone calls and lots of luck. In the end we accomplished what we'd set out to do and the boss was happy with the final report. It was a good week.