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A trio of Australian Army Chinooks is among Defence assets assisting in the recovery from ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
The CH-47F medium-lift helicopters from 5th Aviation Regiment had arrived in Oakey, near Toowoomba in South-East Queensland, as of Tuesday morning, having flown from Townsville on Saturday via Rockhampton.
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According to Defence, the aircraft are “on-call to support tasking (pending weather), if required”.
“The Australian Defence Force is working closely with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Queensland and New South Wales state emergency authorities, and the Queensland and NSW governments to support the planning and response to TC Alfred,” Defence said.
“Defence is ready to provide high-clearance vehicles, support personnel and rotary-wing support for TC Alfred under the direction of Queensland and New South Wales emergency services. The ADF has proactively reduced notice-to-move periods and is ready and prepared to provide further support to communities, as further requests are received by the Australian Government.
“As at 11 March the ADF has deployed over 550 personnel to Queensland and over 680 personnel to northern New South Wales, continued to provide support to reconnaissance, route clearance and welfare checks in northern New South Wales, and supported reconnaissance, route clearance and welfare checks in Hervey Bay, Ipswich, Laidley, Redlands, Gold Coast and Springbrook areas in Queensland.”
More than 120,000 properties in South-East Queensland and northern NSW remain without power following the ex-tropical cyclone, which made landfall as a tropical low on Saturday night, bringing heavy winds and Brisbane’s highest daily rainfall since January 1974.
Airports such as Brisbane, Ballina Byron, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast were forced to close ahead of the storm, with airlines including Qantas and Virgin Australia cancelling or suspending flights into and out of the region.
Qantas and Jetstar resumed flights to Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Ballina on Sunday, though held off returning to Hervey Bay due to the heavy floods.
Virgin also brought back Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and Ballina flights on Sunday and advised guests flying to South-East Queensland and northern NSW to keep an eye on its website for further return of services.
