Every so often mother nature does things that remind us of how powerful she really is. Recently we travelled to Broome, a small city in the north-west of Australia. Broome is a tourist hotspot who's population triples during the tourist season, also known as the "dry season".
In contrast the rest of the year is incredibly quiet, this is commonly known as the "wet season". The temperature itself doesn't change all that much but the humidity goes through the roof. Humidity obviously means rain and Broome doesn't get a lot usually but when it does it comes down hard and fast.
We had planned to leave before Christmas but things changed and we found ourselves housesitting until the 8th of January. Unfortunately not long before the homeowner was due home the storms hit and they hit hard!
Ex tropical cyclone Ellie had made landfall in the Northern Territory and moved it's way south-west toward Broome. The storms that came with it brought incredible amounts of rain in a very short period. In fact some areas of Broome received almost their yearly rainfall in 3 days.
It started reasonably slow, a couple of days of miserable weather with small patches of sun or clear sky in between, a quick chance to get the dogs out for a walk or go to the shops without getting wet.
It soon changed and one night all you could hear was the rain and wind. When we woke in the morning nothing had changed except maybe it was a little stronger.
We hopped on Facebook and put on the news to see if there was much information around and what people were saying. No one seemed very concerned at first. "This is standard this time of year" seemed to be the opinion of most of the locals but as the second day arrived you could tell the rain was bad. There began to be stories and photos on Facebook of rural and isolated communities being cut off by floodwaters and others being evacuated.
Willare bridge north of Broome
Broome itself got very wet but as a town on the coast the water doesn't build up like it can around the rivers and floodplains further inland. Places like Fitzroy crossing, based around the Fitzroy river have become completely isolated with roads washed away and bridges collapsing under the volume of water.
Fitzroy crossing bridge is destroyed
Surrounding Broome and other areas are enormous floodplains that stretch huge distances in every direction. The Roebuck plains just outside of Broome is known to flood during heavy rains and that is exactly what has happened here.
With the road and bridge to the north washed away and the road to the south completely flooded Broome is cut off by land from the rest of the country.
Floodplains around Fitzroy crossing
During the storms aircraft were unable to fly in and Broome began to run out of supplies. Since the weather has calmed deliveries of supplies have come by boat and plane, as well as people from stranded communities further north.
Road north washed away
It could be up to a week before the water recedes enough for regular cars to pass through. Since our housesit ended we were going to be either camping or paying huge amounts for accommodation, we had a look around and found someone else looking for a house sitter and are now staying another 2-3 weeks.
We are hoping that the home-owner returns before the next rains so we can hit the road because our luck so far has been slim and the last thing we need is to get stuck here even longer. On the plus side, cute dog to look after.
Sassy and Nala