David Gardiner

Journalist

December will be remembered not so much about Cyclone Jasper itself, but the sheer amount of water it brought with it, turning the event into the far north’s worst natural flood disaster in living memory.

Months and even years will pass but Douglas Shire will retain that awful lasting impression; the region will still be feeling the effects of December’s most unwelcome visitor.

For one of Queensland’s major tourist destinations, there perhaps could be nothing worse than being cut off from the rest of the world for a lengthy period of time.

As Port Douglas had only just started to get back on its feet after the cyclone’s initial impact, the Shire’s other main central business district area – Mossman – was inundated with a torrent of muddy water as the river burst its banks following days of the most amount of rainfall ever recorded. 

The realisation soon kicked in that Mossman itself would take weeks to clean up, as shopkeepers struggled to do the best they could without power or clean town water. 

North of the Daintree River, we were just starting to hear of the nightmares residents and business owners there would have to be face over coming weeks and months as stories emerged of washed-out roads, the prospect of no ferry for up to weeks and the virtually impossible logistics of getting supplies to isolated small communities which were fast running out of generator fuel.