A father and his 10-year-old son have been rescued from floodwaters in remote north-west Queensland after their friends walked 12 hours to raise the alarm.
Key points:
- A group travelling in a ute became bogged in floodwaters on Sunday evening
- They spent the night in the car before three of them walked 50 kilometres to seek help
- A father and his 10-year-old son stayed with the car until a rescue helicopter arrived
The group's ute became bogged in the water, west of Mount Isa, late on Sunday evening.
They spent the night in the car, before three of the occupants left about 6:00am yesterday, walking approximately 50 kilometres to Mount Isa to call for help.
The trio arrived at the police station about 6:00pm.
Mount Isa disaster management officer Acting Senior Sergeant Todd Noble said they had concerns for the father and son's safety, but were able to find the pair easily thanks to the information from the three adults.
"The three that came in were able to very clearly articulate to police by looking at a map, and point out where the car was," he said.
"It was very accurate, which made our job a lot easier."
The Mount Isa-based RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter flew to the location shortly after.
Just before last light, the crew found the man and child sitting on the roof of a vehicle and landed the helicopter on a dry patch of land nearby.
'Wet and arduous journey'
Acting Senior Sergeant Noble said it would've been a huge journey for the three adults.
"It's an unmarked dirt track, I believe they were out hunting or looking for food is what I was told initially," he said.
"We weren't able to get any vehicles into that area, which was attempted before by some other members of the family.
"So it would've been quite wet, and quite an arduous journey for them, so they've done a good job."
The pair did not require medical attention and were flown to Mount Isa Airport in good spirits.
RACQ LifeFlight Rescue pilot Russell Proctor said the father and son did all the right things.
"They had water with them," he said.
"Despite having to wait such a long time to be rescued, they remained with their vehicle until help arrived."
Police said it wasn't the only rescue emergency services had to attend since the rain started.
"This is now the third incident in 24 hours where vehicles have got stuck in floodwater," Senior Sergeant Noble said.
"Coming into the wet season you really need to plan your trip well, particularly if you're going on dirt roads, make sure you check with the TMR website for road closures.
"The same messaging, if it's flooded forget it … and make sure your vehicles are packed with enough water, food and necessities like that so that if you do happen to get stuck you're able to sustain yourself for a while.
"And try and remain with the vehicle … finding a vehicle is a lot easier than trying to find people walking through flood-affected areas."
'Unstable and moist conditions for northern Queensland'
Heavy rainfall has drenched much of northern Queensland, covering regions from the east coast, almost to the Northern Territory border.
Rainfall of 125 millimetres fell just north of Townsville since 9:00am yesterday and Cloncurry recorded 74mm.
Meteorologist James Thompson said the trough, which has been sitting over the northern part of the state for the last few days, will not be moving anytime soon.
"It's still around probably for at least the next 24 hours," Mr Thompson said.
"It starts to shift towards the east coast by tomorrow afternoon, but we still have broad troughing in the area, which means we could still see some showers and storms for the next few days and maybe even into early next week.
"Quite unstable and moist conditions for northern Queensland for the rest of the week.
"We should start to see it move as we get the influence of an upper feature, an upper trough move through and shift the focus towards the east coast."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTEyLTI5L2ZhdGhlci1zb24tcmVzY3VlZC1mcm9tLWZsb29kd2F0ZXJzLWluLXJlbW90ZS1xbGQtaGVhdnktcmFpbi8xMzAxODcwMtIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMzAxODcwMg?oc=5
2020-12-28 21:02:00Z
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