Australia Weather News

Several flood warnings remain in place across Western Australia's far north, with remote communities cut off and parts of a major highway closed due to heavy rain. 

Persistent thunderstorms over the past week have led to increased river levels affecting communities on the outskirts of Fitzroy Crossing, about 2,500 kilometres north of Perth in the state's Kimberley region.

The Fitzroy River in Fitzroy Crossing reached moderate flood levels this morning, with the river continuing to rise after reaching 11.36 metres just after 11am. 

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Jessica Lingard said the Fitzroy River was expected to peak tomorrow.

"The environment is saturated, so the ground can no longer absorb any of the rainfall and so it does need to run off into the river system and flow through the catchment," she said.

"It is typical that we do start to see these river level responses later on in the wet season."

South-east of Fitzroy Crossing at the Blue Bush floodway, the Great Northern Highway has been cut off to motorists, restricting access to the community from the east.

Warnings are in place for the upper parts of the Fitzroy River Catchment in the communities of Darlngunaya, Bungardi and Warmun.

There is also a flood advice warning for remote communities further south in the Pilbara including Punmu, Kiwurrkurra and Kunawarritji. 

Communities isolated

Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES)SuperintendentLeon Gardiner said several communities across the central and eastern parts of the Kimberley were cut off.

"That's resulted in the isolation of a number of smaller remote communities," he said. 

Superintendent Gardiner said it was not unusual to have these conditions during the wet season, but it had been a couple of seasons since the region experienced this kind of weather.

He said authorities were flying in essential supplies to remote areas.

"There's no need to be going out and panic buying or going to the supermarket shelves and stripping the shelves of supplies," he said. 

Wangki Radio Station's Andrea Myers has been helping distribute food supplies across Fitzroy.

Ms Myers said there was no indication housing would be affected by the heavy rainfall, but main roads in the town were submerged in water.

"It rained a lot overnight, which meant the river at the bridge, and also all the little creeks around us, have been rising a lot," she said.

"This does happen quite often, but it hasn't been this high in two years."

'Magical' rain

El Questro Wilderness Park Emma Gorge caretaker Nicki Venaglia said complacency around these weather events was often the biggest risk.

"We haven't had a huge amount of rain here at Emma [Gorge], but over the weekend we did have two huge big dump downs," she said. 

"It cuts us off from everything in town. There's nothing else but us out here and the wildlife."

Ms Vengalia said the rain had transformed Emma Gorge's dry landscape into vibrant, luscious green, describing it as "magical".

Further south of Broome, Anna Plains Station manager David Stoate said he welcomed rain but not flooding.

"I've seen anywhere between 150 millimetres forecast and about 300," Mr Stoate said. 

"I don't want to sound ungrateful about getting rain that's for sure, but you can get a flood which no-one really wants." 

Ongoing clean up 

Meanwhile, further south in the Gascoyne town of Carnarvon, residents are still feeling the impact of the last intense weather system that lashed the north-west coast.

Grape grower Dom Condo said he was facing a bill of up to $40,000 and a month of repair work caused by Ex-Tropical Cyclone Mitchell.

Mr Condo said 14 rows of table grape vines were damaged.

"It was only a category one and we didn't get a lot of rain, thank God for that, otherwise there probably would've been a lot more damage, so pretty dramatic," Mr Condo said.

"You think about it and you're still a bit shocked, it's just the nature of the beast."

More rain forecast

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is keeping its eye on a tropical low forming over the West Kimberley.

In the 24 hours up until 9am today, Broome had recorded 126.4mm of rain.

While BOM said there was a low chance of the system developing into a tropical cyclone, heavy rain was expected across the Kimberley and Pilbara as it tracks further south over the coming days.