Team members unload a plane on the tarmac at Kowanyama to transport supplies for the community’s ABIS supermarket after the wet season made road freight impossible for 25 weeks. Photo: Supplied.
An extended wet season and impassable local road network has dealt supermarket operator Community Enterprise Queensland (CEQ) a freight bill of more than $1.27 million to airlift supplies to three of its remote stores from December to May.
CEQ usually delivers supplies to its supermarkets in the Indigenous communities of Kowanyama, Pormpuraaw, and Doomadgee by road with its truck network, however, the wet season created record periods of inaccessibility that necessitated air freighting fresh food each week.
CEQ general manager stakeholder engagement Fred Gela said wet season store planning started six months out from the arrival of the annual inundation.
“Even the best laid plans need to remain flexible and nimble, as the weather in the Cape and Torres Strait can often dish up surprises, and the length of this wet season has surprised everyone,” he said.
“For example, in a normal wet season year, CEQ would expect Doomadgee to be cut off by road for around two weeks, however, this year it was 13 weeks, and Kowanyama experienced its longest wet season since 2017, being cut off for 25 weeks.”
The massive wet season operation included 144 charter flights to the three communities, with which 174 tonnes of supplies were offloaded and transported to the stores.
Mr Gela praised team members on the ground in the remote communities, adding the organisation had absorbed the cost of the air freight to avoid exacerbating cost of living pressures for residents.
“Facilitating these deliveries at each community shows the dedication and hard work of our stores team as they tackle the monumental task of unloading planes weekly by hand, despite the challenges posed by the weather and the volume of cargo,” Mr Gela said.
“The collective power of the CEQ model is currently enabling this significant cost to be funded for the benefit of our wet season stores; these costs are absorbed by CEQ and do not result in a price increase for customers.”
