Rachael Anderson's western Queensland cattle station is strewn with the bodies of thousands of cattle that died in floodwaters a
But her immediate concern after floods killed half of her herd is not the 2000 or so carcasses now rotting in swampy paddocks.
It is the banks.
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"I can provide for my family right now. But in six months time or when the bank comes for their repayment, I don't know what I'm going to do, none of us know what we are going to do," Ms Anderson told AAP on Monday.
"We can't get loans because we've got nothing to borrow against, none of us have got anything left."
The grazier runs Eddington Station about 20km west of Julia Creek with her husband, and says they, like many, are taking the clean up one day at a time.
But they aren't giving up.
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"I'm not going to lie, it will finish some people up, but others will be rebuilding," Ms Anderson said.
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Her property is eroded from the vast amount of flood water that washed through, and the creek they'd been pumping for water to brush their teeth and wash their clothes is now contaminated with dead cattle.
A rotting stench has set in, but what farmers will do with the dead livestock is still being worked out.
"There are feral pigs that will come and eat that, there are feral cats that will come and eat that, and there will probably be a plague of them after this," she said.
The financial hit to farmers in the state's northwest and the industry more broadly may not be known for weeks but it's expected to be hundreds of millions of dollars.
Some rural properties remain underwater, making it hard for those graziers to get feed to their surviving animals.
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The federal government has noted the problem and will provide an immediate non-gratia payment of $1 million to affected shires, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the national press club in Canberra.
"This payment will be for them to use on priorities they deem most urgent - whether that be rate relief for impacted properties, infrastructure, or the disposal of cattle which have perished," he said on Monday.
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Meanwhile, the Insurance Council of Australia has defended the behaviour of insurers in flood-ravaged Townsville amid complaints they are not paying up.
The ICA says insurers are doing everything they can to help customers.
Both the Queensland Labor government and LNP opposition have called on insurers to ensure they give claimants a fair go.
ICA chief executive Rob Whelan will travel there on Friday, and the ICA will hold two forums to provide claims guidance.
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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday wrote to Mr Morrison, urging him to extend Category C grant funding to small businesses.
As of Monday, insurers had received 13,900 claims from Townsville, with losses estimated at $170 million.
Meanwhile, police are still searching for a 35-year-old man who disappeared in floodwaters on Friday.
With AAP
SOURCE SBS NEWS
