Heavy rain brings flash-flooding across Newman, Telfer and other towns in WA’s Pilbara

Heavy rain from a slow-moving tropical low has flooded parts of  WA’s Pilbara, leaving remote communities isolated and major roads cut. 

By 10:30am on Wednesday, Newman had received more than 132 millimetres of rain from the system, with the first rain falling about 6:30pm on Tuesday evening.

The system, which has travelled through the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region, hit the Pilbara late on Tuesday, bringing heavy rainfall and a severe weather warning.

The impacts were first felt in Telfer, 1,700 kilometres north-east of Perth.

The mining settlement has received 114mm of rain since Tuesday, with the showers beginning to reduce as of this morning.

In Newman, heavy rainfall has seen the Fortescue River and Gingianna Pools to break their banks, as well as significant flooding on major roads.

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Marble Bar Road between Marble Bar and Newman remains closed to all vehicles, and drivers are urged to exercise caution if travelling on Great Northern Highway between Auski and Kumarina roadhouses.

Newman resident and avid weather photographer Kevin Mitchell said the rain had been relentless since Tuesday evening.

“It has not stopped — at about 11.30, 12:00 o’clock last night, it was bucketing down,” he said.

Leaving his house early on Wednesday, Mr Mitchell said the effects of the system were already apparent.

“The streets are completely flooded,” he said.

“I’m basically warning the Newman community to stay off the roads in small cars … because it’s not good.”

Newman resident Sarah Hansen said the rain had continued all night.

“It started at around 7pm last night and hasn’t eased up since,” she said.

“I went for a drive this morning just out to the local rivers … and there’s water everywhere.”

All flights scheduled for Wednesday at Newman Airport have been cancelled due to the impact of weather.

Drought-breaking rain for stations

For Neil Gibson, caretaker on Marillana Station north-west of Newman, the rain broke a six-month period without substantial rain.

He said this had significantly impacted the amount of available feed for the livestock.

“We’ve just had 45mm. Hopefully, we’ll get a lot more … it’s still raining now… hopefully we’ll get another 20–30mm of rain,” Mr Gibson said.

Mr Gibson said the broader region had been dealing with a dry spell and the rain was a welcome relief.

“It’s been very dry, our rainwater tanks were getting pretty low,” he said.

“You get a bit sick of the dust. It’s good to see a bit of water.”

He said pastoralists across the Pilbara would be hoping this is just the start of a change in conditions.

“One of our neighbours got about 170mm.  Just hope we get a bit more to keep it up,” Mr Gibson said.

Department of Fire and Emergency Services Pilbara Superintendent Darryl Ray said emergency teams were on the ground responding to the weather.

“We’ve got an incident management team out at Tom Price managing that,” he said.

“The Great Northern Highway’s got water over the road near Auski, so take care on the Great Northern Highway.”

Remote communities isolated

The system also passed through the remote Aboriginal communities of Jigalong and Parnngurr, which are only accessible via unsealed roads.

Parnngurr community coordinator Lincoln Mail said the flooding had cut the community off.

“I’m told from Jigalong into Newman it’s been closed, so basically, we are isolated,” he said.

“We can’t get out.”

Some residents who were intending to return to Parnngurr are now unable to come back until the weather eases.

But Mr Mail said the community was well prepared.

“There’s not a lot of people in town. A lot of people who were coming back with school starting next week decided to hang off just in case the roads got bad, and they got caught,” Mr Mail said.