‘A logistical nightmare’: flooding takes out sole rail link sparking West Australian food shortage

Western Australia is facing food shortages after flooding washed out more than 300km of railway line, leading to ‘the worst disruption to the food supply chain’ in living memory. Photograph: Kelly Barnes/AAP

Western Australia’s food supply crisis is “the worst in living memory” with the state’s umbilical cord to the eastern states severed, not by Covid or border closure, but by extreme weather.

Flooding in South Australia has washed out more than 300km of the only rail line that brings food and supplies into WA from the east coast.