Nothing like a ‘baptism by fire/nature’ experience, barely one month after moving up to Far North Queensland – the very thing that we dreaded, but knew that we’d inevitably encounter.  A cyclone. 

Jasper moved into the Coral Sea as a Category 4 and quickly became one of the strongest and largest cyclones to ever form this early in the season. It wasn’t exactly what we’d had in mind settling into the new house. We were in scorching 40-degree Sydney for a wedding when it first came onto our radar (as it were) and we became increasingly nervous and eager to get back to the house to prepare for the worst. Actually, even before we left for Sydney, a friend cautioned us to make some preparations in the garden in anticipation of Jasper – moving garden furniture indoors and securing anything that could become airborne safely away, so we had prepared (to a degree )
in advance. 

Jasper hit us on Wednesday 13^th December – way too early in the season. Actually, it was the first direct hit on Cairns in some 70 years, so somewhat of a surprise! As Jasper wobbled through the Coral Sea it weakened to a category 2, so (in local terms) deemed manageable, ‘nothing to worry about mate’. What no one anticipated was that this huge system would remain stationary, slowly swirling over Cairns for a week, drawing moisture from the reef and dumping over 2 metres of rain in just 5 days! For context, Cairns annual rainfall is 2 metres, so the whole region, from south of Cairns into the tablelands and up to the Daintree Rain Forest – where it finally crossed the coast – copped it. Unprecedented flooding on a biblical scale! This was rain never before experienced. Torrential doesn’t even describe it. Never Ending. Bucketloads a Second. For 5 whole days and nights, it didn’t stop. Everywhere flooded here including the airport, drowning planes on the runway! It flooded all around us to a frightening degree and smashed the beaches and coastline with terrifying speed and force. Fortunately (Thankfully) we were spared. We have 14 metres of elevation and are a few blocks back from the beach, so we didn’t flood. However, the garden did around us and beneath us, but drained almost immediately in the rare pauses when the rain eased, but not without a few nervous sleepless nail-biting nights. 

The Captain Cook Highway just north of us, the main road between Cairns, Port Douglas and the Daintree was badly hit in several places. Ellis Beach had a landslide that took out the road and beach, but it was up at the Rex Lookout that disaster really struck. A massive landslide that looks like the whole mountain collapsed onto the road, spilling into the sea. Where the ‘fridge-sized’ boulders came from is anyone’s guess, but it has resulted in the highway being severed and out of action for who knows how long – till the end of January? Or for many months. It’s that significant. So, all the communities and towns north of Palm Cove are essentially cut off – save for a ferry service out of Cairns and, in recent days, a long inland circuitous route via the tablelands. 

Please spare a thought for the Port Douglas / Daintree region. Water and services were only reconnected a few days before Christmas. Whole communities have been devasted. Homes lost or badly impacted by flooding. Supermarkets stripped and unable to resupply. Tourism, the lifeline of local business, now dead-in-the-water ( no pun intended).

We live in an impressively resilient community and of course things will return to normal, but it will take time. We’re so thankful that we weren’t impacted in any way. It was an experience that’s for sure and I guess we’ll be more prepared for the next one that comes our way. 

If you feel a little charity rising from reading this post, then please consider this Go Fund Me site –https://www.gofundme.com/f/cairns-cyclone-jasper-flood-appeal