Millions of dollars of infrastructure damage and lost sugar cane production has been reported in north Queensland, as growers and millers continue to assess damages from major flooding this month.
Days of inundation across the Tully and Herbert valleys will lead to a serious downgrade of estimated cane yields this season, with some farmers facing immense losses.
Canegrowers Herbert River chief executive Peter Sheedy said last year growers had harvested a near-record crop of more than 5 million tonnes, but this season would be well down.
"We were looking at something that was going to be every bit as good as last year," he said.
"In light of what we're seeing, what's being reported, it's certainly going to be downgraded. It's definitely taken the shine off the 2018 crop."
Rail network wrecked
While growers have been the hardest hit, Wilmar Sugar has reported about 120 kilometres of the company's 600km Herbert rail network has been damaged.
But cane supply and grower relations manager Paul Giordani said the extent of the damage was lower than the 2009 flood and costs would likely be under $1 million.
"So 20 per cent [of cane rail] has had some sort of damage, from very minor to in some places where we've had washouts, significant," he said.
Mr Giordani expects the 2018 season to begin on time, with accurate crop estimates beginning to be collated by Wilmar.
"That whole process will be finalised at the end of April. That will give us the crop size and from there we'll look at the mill plans for start-up," he said.
Mr Giordani and Mr Sheedy believe the district fared comparatively well in the flood, and lessons are being learned from each separate event.
Recovery sub-groups set up by Hinchinbrook Shire Council will now evaluate how drainage channels and infrastructure performed during the flood.
"We're always looking for ways to improve longer term resilience, and I think you do see good work that has stood up from previous events," Mr Sheedy said.
"We just keep working at it, keep trying to improve and enhance as we move along."
Tully recovers
Further north up the Bruce Highway, Tully Canegrowers chairman Tom Harney is yet to assess damage on all parts of his farms alongside the Tully River.
"We can't access to see what the damage is. We're only picking the nice spots at the moment which are accessible to us," he said.
"You can see just past here there's a lot of logs and debris on the headlands. Further I can see erosion on the river bank, but I wouldn't venture down there to have a look now, too dangerous."
Mr Harney said parts of his farm that were heavily inundated would need to be harvested first and then replanted due to damage sustained in the flood.
"It could have grown another 10-15 tonnes per acre, but I'll harvest it early and get it off in preparation for next year," he said.
"The problem is the harvester will pick the cane up and they'll pick up everything else with it.
"We like to leave the stool [roots of the cane] so it can ratoon for another crop. More than likely, the harvester's going to have no choice but to pick the lot up."
While about 2.9 million tonnes of cane was predicted to be harvested this year in Tully, Mr Harney believes that figure is now much lower.
"Allowing for the dead and damaged cane, we're probably talking 2.7 million tonnes, and that would be an average crop," he said.
Riverbanks suffer
Further north in the South Johnstone mill area, more than a metre of rain caused raging floodwaters in Liverpool Creek, 25 kilometres south of Innisfail.
Lower Cowley growers the Strano brothers lost about a hectare of their cane crop to the floods, a situation they say could have been avoided.
"We've complained about this over the last 15, 20 years, [and] we've planted trees to try and stabilise the banks," Alf Strano said.
"But the way the river's changing course, it's just making its own course."
The torrent has brought the creek's banks to within metres of the Cowley Beach Road, the only route out of town for about 80 residents.
Cassowary Coast councillor Jeff Baines said the issue was on his radar.
"I don't think we can put banks back so I think the important thing at the moment is to stop the bank eroding any further than it already has," he said.
"It's starting to intrude its way towards one of our major assets, so it's very high on council's agenda."
On the bright side
Conversely, Innisfail Canegrowers chairman Joe Marano said the rain had restored balance to the wet season.
"It's a normal wet season. We haven't had a decent wet season for five or six years," he said.
"We need the rain this time of year to help the crop grow. There was a bit much rain but on the whole, a little bit of cane went underwater. It'll recover.
"Probably in another week or so we'll probably be looking for rain again."
