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Heavy rains bring Queensland’s Channel Country to life
ABC NEWS (Australia)
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4/28/2024
In Queensland’s far west recent flooding has brought the channel country alive with a wave of wildflowers carpeting the desert. And as the tourism season kicks off in Birdsville, locals and tourists agree there's something special about this year.
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00:00
As far as the eye can see, the outback has become a carpet of green, the reward for a
00:07
channel country flood.
00:10
Oh mate, then that's when the magic starts.
00:15
A transformed terrain teeming with life.
00:21
And in this vast expanse, the best seat in the house is in the sky.
00:26
You wouldn't really believe that it was in the middle of the desert, all this water and
00:30
flood plains.
00:31
All the dormant seedlings that lay underneath that cracked clay pan just explode to life
00:37
so you get a whole, this abundance of colours, greenery, wildflowers shooting through.
00:44
Travelling by road to Birdsville is equally surprising.
00:50
You'll find publican Rob O'Hagan stationed behind the bar at the Batuda Hotel.
00:55
I've never noticed so many guanas and birdlife and the flowers everywhere, it's just growing
01:02
everywhere and so it's just something totally different from what we're used to seeing.
01:07
For Sydney sighter Bree Dixon, it wasn't the scenery she expected.
01:12
It's a bit of a mixture between red and green which is really cool to see, just obviously
01:15
two contrasting colours like that together.
01:18
While it's been a slow start to the tourist season, operators say there are squadrons
01:23
of pelicans to be seen.
01:25
I've never seen so many pelicans.
01:30
It doesn't go hand in hand with, among a theory, the Simpson Desert, that we've got pelicans
01:35
flying over the top and having a good feed on the Diamantina Crossing that's typically
01:41
dry.
01:42
Two months ago the area behind me was flooded but it wasn't from heavy rain that fell here.
01:48
Ex-tropical cyclone Kirili dumped hundreds of millimetres of rain, hundreds of kilometres
01:54
north of here.
01:55
The floodwaters then moved downstream through the Channel Country, eventually making their
02:00
way to South Australia into Kattytunda Lake Eyre.
02:04
The floodwaters have left feed and fat cows in its wake.
02:08
The cattle are amazed, they're happy.
02:10
The flies are annoying them but I think I'll take the flies with feed and no feed and no
02:16
flies.
02:17
For those planning a trip, bring a camera.
02:20
Because I don't think you're ever going to see it quite as pretty as what it is at the
02:22
moment.
02:23
[BLANK_AUDIO]
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