BAZflyer: Emerald

Fire is an integral part of Australia’s natural environment, and its cultural and social fabric. The first people on the continent learned to live in a fire-prone environment and manage fire as part of everyday life. To put this in perspective, in a typical year some ten percent of the continent (80 million hectares) might be burnt. Major fire years usually occur following the rare periods of significant interior rainfall and consequent abundant grass growth.

Whilst the risk of fire has fearsome connotations for many outback communities, its potential for devastation is fortunately minimised through systematic evaluation and strategic management. However, this is not so for floods. In many of the outback towns visited by the Bazflyer’s during their travels in Central Queensland, property damage caused by flooding is plainly evident. The small town of Emerald was one such example.

Coming into land at Emerald’s modern airport the flight path took us over a dry looking expansive landscape. Some inventive imagination was required to envisage the land covered in flood waters, but covered it has been. Just six months prior to our visit the town was inundated with flood waters resulting from Cyclone Debbie and back in 2010 it suffered the worst flooding in generations. On that occasion water from the Nogoa River washed through more than 1,000 houses and damaged 95 percent of the town’s businesses.

During our time in Emerald the town was buoyant and the floods were hardly mentioned, such is the characteristic resilience of outback folk. If you’re not the resilient type, you probably aren’t living out there. Fire and flood have forever been an integral part of the great Australian Outback environment and an accepted element of living in the outback.

Flying into Emerald - cotton is one of the main crops grown in the area