Sydney (AFP) – Whole herds of cattle have drowned in vast inland floods sweeping across the Australian outback, officials said Tuesday, as the muddy tide drenched an area the size of France.
Swollen rivers burst their banks after unusually heavy downpours last week over outback Queensland, an arid region home to some of the country's largest cattle ranches.
Officials said more than 100,000 livestock -- cattle, sheep, goats and horses -- had been swept away, were missing, or had drowned.
"These are only early indications of the magnitude of this disaster and while these preliminary numbers are shocking, we are expecting them to continue to climb as flood waters recede," said state agriculture minister Tony Perrett.
"It's heartbreaking to consider what western Queenslanders will be going through over the weeks and months as they discover the full extent of losses and damage -- and start the long slog to start again."
Researchers have repeatedly warned that climate change amplifies the risk of natural disasters such as bushfires, floods and cyclones.
Flood waters stretched some 500,000 square kilometres (190,000 square miles) across sparsely populated western Queensland, Perrett said, a landmass roughly equivalent to France.
Industry body AgForce told local media some cattle ranches may have lost almost 100 percent of their herd.
The government Bureau of Meteorology said some towns had recorded as much as 500 millimetres (20 inches) of rain in the space of a week -- their typical yearly total.
"Unfortunately, more rainfall is on the way," forecaster Dean Narramore said.
"The reason why we are so concerned about that is because we have numerous flood warnings current for much of Queensland."
The state's primary industries department said some 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) of road had been flooded -- a distance greater than the famed Route 66 connecting Chicago to Los Angeles.