WA flood damages historic homesteads

Historic pastoral homesteads in Western Australia's Gascoyne region could be
irreparably damaged by record floods, which have been declared a natural disaster by
the state government.
Levee banks on the Gascoyne River in the town of Carnarvon were holding on Monday
after the worst floods on record hit the region.
A caravan park in the town was evacuated and residents in some outlying areas were
rescued by helicopter over the weekend after sitting it out on rooftops.
Helicopters and planes continue to deliver food and supplies to people stranded by
the floodwaters.
Premier Colin Barnett, who flew to Carnarvon on Monday morning, has declared a
natural disaster in the Gascoyne, parts of the Pilbara and Mid-West.
He offered immediate financial assistance from the government.
Pastoral station owner Tim D'Arcy, whose son manages the family property near
Carnarvon, said up to nine stations that had never been flooded were now under
water, including some built more than 100 years ago.
"The homesteads are mud-brick or mud-stone type buildings and the damage caused to
them could almost be irreparable," he told AAP on Monday.
"Bidgemia Station is well over 100 years old and it's never gone under, but now the
water is up to the doors.
"There's significant damage to a lot of those majestic, old, homesteads, it's
devastating."
Mr D'Arcy said damage to machinery, plants and cattle would cost the community
millions of dollars.
"The cattle get very weak ... they don't swim too far because they're too cold and a
lot of them will die," he said.
Carnarvon, about 900km north of Perth, received its annual rainfall in 22 hours over
the weekend.
More than 160 people have been staying at the Carnarvon Civic Centre, which has been
designated the region's evacuation centre.
Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) hydrologist Katrina Annan said the river level peaked at
7.8 metres at 4am (WST) on Monday at the Nine Mile Bridge and was at about 7.5
metres by 2pm.
She said water levels would continue in a "downward trend" over the next few days.
"The worst is definitely over," she said.
Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) state duty director Lloyd Bailey said
there had been no reports of injuries or loss of life.
"There's been a number of pastoralist stations that have been uncontactable (and)
efforts are now being made to contact them," he said.
Mr Bailey said any stations that could not be contacted would checked by helicopter
on Tuesday morning.
He said a big issue was the loss of topsoil in plantations.
"The whole area was in drought last week and of course with that comes a very dry
nature of the soil and of course (it's) susceptible to being washed away very
easily."
FESA spokesman in Carnarvon Les Hayter told AAP that 49 people were evacuated from
the Capricorn Caravan Park after it flooded on Sunday night.
He said State Emergency Service (SES) crews used their new floodboat to pick up
people stranded at the park and other isolated areas to relocate them to Carnarvon's
civic centre.
He said SES crews were also sandbagging houses so those residents would not have to
evacuate.
"Hopefully the water will dry up inland in the next few days so people can drive on
the roads to deliver supplies so we won't need the helicopters for the whole area,"
he said.
Shire president Dudley Maslen told AAP there would be millions of dollars in
livestock and crop losses in the region, including mangoes and melons.