© Erin GibsonFlooding on Sunday at Lake Nash Cattle Station on the Barkly Tableland.
A tropical low has been circling in recent days in the Simpson and parts of the Barkly and Tanami areas, bringing heavy local rainfall and damaging winds.
The severe weather is expected to continue into tonight and early tomorrow morning, with a storm Watch and Act advisory declared today.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has advised locally intense rainfall that could lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding is possible across the southern Barkly and northern Simpson districts, as well as rainfall totals of up to 200 millimetres and damaging winds of up to 90 kilometres per hour.
It is also forecasting the chance of thunderstorms tonight across much of the NT, excluding the south-west, and severe thunderstorms in a broad area south of Daly Waters.
The BOM said it could not be certain about the position and strength of the upcoming wet weather, but urged residents to stay up to date with warnings.
"These conditions also threaten cattle and other livestock," the bureau said.
Locations that could be affected include Ali Curung, Arltunga, Ti Tree, Jervois, Barrow Creek and Ampilatwatja.
Cattle stations impacted
Cattle stations across Central Australia and the Barkly have born the brunt of some of the largest rainfall totals over the weekend.
At Elkedra Station, 400 kilometres north of Alice Springs, the property received between 220mm and 620mm over 48 hours — more than double their yearly average rainfall.
Station owner Amber Driver said it was a "once-in-a-lifetime" event, exceeding any flooding they had had on their station in four generations.
Elkedra Station received more than double its average annual rainfall in only 48 hours.
"We really don't know the impact through the catchment ... but at the house it is significant, it's been nearly two metres through the homestead," Ms Driver said.
"It's been through several other building sheds, there's been extensive damage with trees over [and] just the rate the water encroached."
Ms Driver was in Alice Springs while the flooding happened, but said two workers on the station had been making an "incredible effort" to get everything to higher ground.
"The big, big challenge today is seeing what's salvageable and getting some power to the building," she said.
About 400 kilometres south-east of Tennant Creek along the Northern Territory-Queensland border, Lake Nash Station received more than 550mm of rain in some gauges over the weekend, with up to 350mm falling in some areas on Friday night alone.
Station manager Erin Gibson said while the rain had come close to causing damage to the station, staff efforts to move equipment and machinery at risk had meant the station was prepared.
"We haven't suffered too much damage anywhere," Mr Gibson said.
"There will be a few cows in the wrong place ... but if it stops at that, we're very lucky."
Roads closed due to flooding
Dozens of roads have been closed across the NT due to the recent flooding.
The NT's main arterial road between Darwin and Adelaide, the Stuart Highway, was previously closed between Tennant Creek and Ali Curung, but reopened this afternoon.
In a statement, emergency management agency SecureNT said there was significant water over the highway between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek and some sections of the road had been damaged.
It said contractors would be onsite tomorrow to conduct repairs.
Motorists are being encouraged to check the Road Report website for the latest road information.
Speaking this morning, NT Road Transport Association chief executive Louise Bilato said it was frustrating that the Stuart Highway, the NT's national freight route, had been closed because of flooding.
Reader Comments