West Australian authorities will receive assistance from the Australian Defence Force to address a fresh food shortage in the East Kimberley.
The region has been cut off to the Northern Territory since last week after flooding closed the Victoria Highway, which is the main freight corridor across the state border from the east.
Meanwhile, the sole route linking the region to the West Kimberley also remains cut off, after the Great Northern Highway was severed at Fitzroy Crossing during record flooding in January.
The lack of access by road has meant no fresh food has been delivered to the region to restock empty shelves in days.
NT authorities are hoping floodwater covering the Victoria River bridge, on the Victoria Highway in the NT, will have dropped enough by Friday to allow for a structural assessment.
Planes, barges deployed
WA Premier Mark McGowan said the first defence force flight would arrive in the region on Thursday to deliver perishable goods, with another scheduled for Friday.
The supply flights will depart from Darwin, each carrying around 20 tonnes of supplies.
“We know it’s been pretty difficult for people in Kununurra, Wyndham and surrounds,” he said.
“We’ve worked as hard as we can to get food in there as quickly as we can and we expect the situation will alleviate over the coming days.
A spokesperson for the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) said the agency had spent a week trying to contract private airfreight operators to transport chilled goods.
DFES also requested aerial support from the Australian government to support resupply efforts, which was granted.
"A barge carrying five trailers of food supplies, including chilled and frozen goods, will depart Darwin [Wednesday] evening and is due to arrive in Wyndham on Friday, subject to weather conditions," the statement said.
"Planning for a second barge with the same capacity is being progressed to depart Derby later in the week."
WA Opposition leader Shane Love said the emergency airfreight deliveries should have been organised sooner.
"We've seen real food shortages, we've seen families going hungry and a week later they're finally getting one truck load, 20 tonnes, of food into a population of thousands. It's a disgrace," he said.
"I actually think it wouldn't be so hard. So go and hire an aircraft."
Vulnerable residents could 'starve'
Service providers have been impacted by the dwindling food supplies.
MG Corporation, the local native title body for Kununurra, provides hampers to vulnerable residents in partnership with Foodbank WA.
However, youth services manager Marcia Gerrard said the lack of fresh food had made it difficult to provide the service this week.
"Since the flooding last week, we have not received any shipments — we had a shipment that was supposed to arrive last week and we didn't get it because of the flooding," she said.
"It is a disaster area; we are isolated from the rest of Australia.
"Our families, the parents, the children and the elderly are going to starve if we don't get food on the shelves soon."
Food shortage prompts 'stress' for locals
Kununurra resident and mother-of-five Belinda Wielinga said the food shortage had been "stressful".
"You can't meal plan or anything like that — you sort of come into the shops, get what you can, and hope for the best," she said.
"I took in our last piece of fruit into playgroup today and from tomorrow I don't have much fresh stuff at all, maybe a carrot, or a bit of old celery for the girls to take into school."
