Kimberley flooding cripples Red Range Supplements

AUSTRALIA'S freight system and agricultural sector are the backbone of its economy and way of life.

So what happens when part of the backbone - held together by several single lane bridges and one sealed highway - is fractured in outback WA?

This is the reality East Kimberley pastoral businesses are living - and it has created a major logistical nightmare with no known end in sight.

Last month's one-in-100-year weather event took out the Fitzroy River Bridge and large sections of the Great Northern Highway, squeezing inbound supplies and leaving a quarter of the nation's agricultural area essentially cut-off.

Freight prices from Perth to the East Kimberley have doubled in the aftermath, as trucking companies are now being detoured 2200 kilometres through South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Red Range Stock Supplements and Red Dirt Agriculture owners Russell 'Rusty' and Sophie Cooke are already hurting from the economic pinch, and labelled opening the Fitzroy to road trains as an "absolute priority" for WA.

Mr Cooke said subsidies for freight in-and-out of the region - until the normal route was repaired to handle road trains - was also needed, as were exemptions for triple road trains to go into Northam.

Operating across north west WA and Northern Territory, the Cooke's family-run business relies heavily on the main transport route out of the Kimberley.

Recent freight bills included an 80 per cent Kimberley flood detour level, on top of the 20pc fuel levy carried over from COVID hikes.

Mr Cooke expected the flow-on effect of the flood-damage to be astronomical - and this was only the beginning.

"For us to survive we need practical financial and operational solutions to help with our freight increases," he said.

"We also need definite answers on what the capacity is going to be for each solution offered, not what it could be.

"Because we are still in the middle of the wet season, we don't know any of those answers."

In 2022, Red Range Supplements made and distributed more than 20,000 tonnes of finished supplement.

To make the supplement, more than 50pc of product travelled east over the Fitzroy River Bridge as raw materials, and 25pc of the finished product headed west.

The problem is without their normal supply of materials from the west, the Cookes cannot make finished product for their customers either side of the bridge.

"We source more than 50pc of our raw materials from anywhere between Perth and Port Hedland, which is also where 25pc of our customers are also located," Mr Cooke said.

"We can't mix any final product for the other 75pc of our customers without sourcing it from somewhere else in Australia.

"We are a bit stumped either way."

The Cookes have looked at alternative material supply options - including salt and meal - from the east coast or South Australia.

However, these options are either unavailable or come at much higher prices than those in 2023 forward contracts.

"The contracts we have for supply agreements are for the best product we can get for the most economical price," Mr Cooke said.

"That is so we can deliver a reasonably priced, competitive and good product to our final end user.

"Without knowing when the bridge is going to be finished or what the solutions are, we don't know how much product to contract elsewhere.

"How many of our customers are going to stay with us if we have higher prices?

"And are we still going to be competitive?"

To paint a picture of Red Range Stock Supplements freight rate increases, the Cookes need to send cattle supplements to their clients in the Pilbara as soon as possible.

With little or no rain many operators use supplements to support their young calves on the ground.

Normally, they would pay a backload rate of $150 per tonne to a certain property.

Mr Cooke received a freight quote from Kununurra to the East Pilbara at $616 per tonne, which included the 20pc fuel levy.

Furthermore, Red Range uses commercial transport to haul salt 1600km from Rio Tinto, Port Hedland, at a cost of $150/t in 110t loads.

The closest alternative option Mr Cooke has found is from Bajool, Queensland, with a 25pc more expensive price tag for the raw material.

Given Bajool is double the distance from Kununurra, this would involve a 'dog' run with lighter loading, with the freight quoted at $400/t - a massive increase on the same product.

"Without salt I cannot mix anything," Mr Cooke said.

"We also have supply contract commitments for canola, lupins, lime, sulphate of ammonia, and micro minerals from Perth.

"Therefore, we have to take the product or potentially pay to wash the contracts out, as the issue is pushed back down the line to farmers and grain merchants.

"Without alternative competitive solutions for the supply of these commodities nothing can be mixed."

The Cookes have committed to the purchase of other raw materials coming into Darwin and Wyndham.

They are now working out how they can manage their financial commitments to these large parcels.

Recognising the immediate dilemma and requiring a temporary solution, equipment was purchased and hired, and some staff were relocated to set-up a manual mixing system south of Perth.

This is to service a number of south Broome pastoralists, who are still experiencing very dry conditions, and have integrated cattle supplement into their production system to ensure optimum health, condition and productivity.

"At a high expense, this is one solution that is within the capacity of the business to implement without requiring government intervention," Mr Cooke said.

"We have done this to keep supplementing our customers."

As well as stockfeed supplements, the Cookes own Red Dirt Cattle and contract cows to WA's only northern-based abattoir Kimberley Meat Company.

KMC was forced to suspend operations for the foreseeable future, after floodwaters left cattle yards at the site inaccessible.

Fortunately, the plant itself escaped any major damage and can still be accessed via road from Broome.

KMC chief executive officer Michael Rapattoni said - in last week's edition of Farm Weekly - while the plant was open for business, holding capacity and cattle were needed to operate and offer northern pastoralists a much-needed cashflow during flood recovery.

In a normal year, the Cookes have bitumen access at Stapleton station, NT, and are able to supply the abattoir with cows for slaughter during the January to March wet season when others cannot.

Last year, Red Dirt sold more than 1000 cows to KMC and this season they have a supply contract for about 3000 cows to be delivered through to May.

"We desperately need this sale contract for cashflow, especially as we purchased more cows in December to hold, specifically for KMC in the first quarter of the year," Mr Cooke said.

"It must also be noted that KMC is so important to the beef industry in the north.

"Without this kill facility the beef value for the whole of WA and the north will drop."

Mr Cooke said he was disappointed an entire region could be left in standstill due to the destruction of one bridge.

He questioned why there were a significant number of single lane bridges across the main arterial, which separated the east and west.

"There's road and rail across the Nullarbor, from Darwin to Adelaide and on the east coast, where there are also several different transport routes.

"Meanwhile, we only have one road and the other is a dirt road (the Gibb), which is not passable."

Beyond the logistical nightmare the bridge - and floods - have created, Mr Cooke said it was a hazard on any normal day.

He said driving a road train across single lane bridges was not safe, particularly with no traffic lights.

"I think there are about nine single lane bridges between Kununurra and Broome.

"If they put a double-lane bridge in at Fitzroy all those years ago like they had planned, then the bridge would have had more footings, which were bigger and deeper.

"The money they saved by not building those bridges 10 to 30 years ago, now needs to be put into keeping our businesses going with freight subsidies."

For Mr Cooke - and many others - two years is too long to wait for the Fitzroy Crossing bridge to be rebuilt.

He said the importance of single lane bridges, which have also cut-off the region, should not be underestimated.

These concerns were raised with Regional Development Minister Don Punch when he visited Kununurra last week.

READ MORE ABOUT THE KIMBERLEY FLOODS:

Mr Punch met with several flood-affected local businesses to better understand the impact of the broken road access, and relayed the message to take back to his colleagues as to what the East Kimberley needed to stay in business.

"We are in Australia - we are not a third world country, surely we can build a bridge faster," Mr Cooke said.

"The road needs money spent on it and it is disappointing it has taken something like this - a natural disaster - to bring it to everyone's attention.

"What we definitely need for business to survive in the north is freight assistance and deadlines or accurate outcomes on the road to recovery."