Restoration of the Cape Tribulation - Bloomfield Road after TC Jasper; collaboration between Douglas Shire Council and TMR

Abstract

Tropical Cyclone Jasper made landfall near Wujal Wujal at about 8pm on 13th December 2023 as a Category 2 storm, but it was the extreme rainfall that followed which had devastating impacts on the Douglas Shire.

In some areas, over 700mm fell within 24 hours, and over 2000mm fell during the 5 days from 13th - 18th December 2023. Over a year of average rainfall fell within a week, and then over 2000mm more fell in the following months as part of a particularly heavy monsoonal wet season.

This intense event caused an unprecedented amount of damage to the natural environment and public infrastructure, heavily impacting residents, and communities across the entire region.

An example of this impact was the council road network north of the Daintree River, where numerous landslips caused severe damage and road closures which isolated several communities including Cape Tribulation and Degarra.

This area contains some of the most ecologically and culturally significant wet tropics rainforests in Australia and the world, and also supports a prominent eco-tourism industry which attracts visitors from across the globe.

Faced with this and numerous other urgent challenges to restore critical infrastructure, Council found its internal engineering capacity stretched beyond its limits.

Consequently, the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) was approached to assist, and an MOU was quickly established to document an agreed scope and confirm a clear intent to work together to achieve outcomes for the community.

TMR’s internal construction branch RoadTek was engaged to undertake emergent repairs to the heavily damaged and closed Cape Tribulation - Bloomfield Road (aka Bloomfield Track), an unsealed lower order road that links the Daintree and Cape Tribulation with the communities of Wujal Wujal and Cooktown further north.

Additionally, TMR provided several full-time engineers, technicians, and project coordinators to provide direct support to council’s infrastructure team to manage the emergent works on the broader area north of the Daintree River.

This collaborative approach also enabled connection of Council with numerous other areas of support within TMR, including Geotechnical Engineers, Geospatial and Surveys, Communications support, Environment and Cultural Heritage advice.

The RoadTek team repaired over 40 damage sites on the Bloomfield Track of varying magnitude and complexity, using several different repair techniques over a period of approximately 4 months during the far north's relentless monsoon wet season.

Significant engagement and advice from key environmental and cultural heritage stakeholders ensured that these risks in a World Heritage rainforest were effectively managed during this process.

The road was re-opened to public traffic prior to the June school holidays – which was warmly received by local tourism operators as one of the features of their peak season.

Now that access to these communities has been restored, the project team reflects on the processes that occurred during this emergent response period and recommends adopting a similar approach in future disaster events. Timely and open communication between local and state government colleagues can lead to valuable support in times of crisis.