Back on their feet: how disaster recovery funding helped a Malanda cattle producer through Cyclone Jasper
Anita connected with RFCSNQ following Cyclone Jasper, supporting recovery and resilience for the future.
Anita is one of many rural business owners across the Cyclone Jasper impacted region to have accessed free support from the Rural Financial Counselling Service North Queensland supported by the Australian and Queensland Governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements - helping producers get back on their feet, get income flowing again, and build resilience for whatever the next season brings. Watch Anita’s story below.
For 36 years, Anita Stoddart has been in the cattle business, running a breeder operation across 160,000 acres at Croydon and a 125-acre finishing block at Malanda, where she brings in weaners and fattens them for sale. Nothing, though, had prepared her for what Tropical Cyclone Jasper and the flooding that followed would do to her Malanda property in December 2023.
“He was pretty, pretty horrible,” Anita said. “Everything got really washed out. Places had never washed out before, got washed out.”
Anita was on the property alone with one of her older children when the disaster hit, and what followed was a gruelling week trying to save as many cattle as possible.
“We would go out with the four-wheeler and a trailer, pick them up, take them to the yards and try to keep them a little bit dry, feed them pellets and hay and try to get them to survive,” she said. “The exposure, I think, was just the worst.”
After clearing the carcasses of the cattle that didn't survive, Anita kept feeding and caring for the rest, determined to give them the best chance. Roads and a creek crossing on the property were badly gouged out and needed a contractor to repair.
It was through a QRIDA email that Anita first heard about disaster recovery funding, support that would prove critical to getting back on her feet.
Anita got in touch with Lynette McGuffie, Rural Financial Counsellor, and the free, impartial and confidential support available through the Rural Financial Counselling Service North Queensland (RFCSNQ).
She lost around 50 weaners in the disaster, a setback she says would otherwise have taken a couple of years to recover from. With disaster recovery grants from the Australian and Queensland Governments, she was able to buy replacement weaners, repair the washouts where cattle walk between gateways, and cover some of the extra stock feed needed to keep the rest of her herd alive.
“Without the disaster funding, we would have been feeling the money pressure pretty bad,” Anita said.
Just as important as the funding itself was the support Anita received from dedicated disaster recovery Rural Financial Counsellors, who helped her through the application process.
“Without the rural financial counselling service, I would not be able to do these applications myself,” Anita said. “She helps me do all of the bookwork side of it, and it's really good. I get photos and whatever else I need.”
For Anita, that support went well beyond paperwork. “In speaking with Lynette, I find it very good for mental health, as well as the time that it takes to do these things,” she said.
Having someone local, who understands life on the land, made all the difference.
“Lynette made the application process easier, with someone that I know rather than just a voice on the end of the phone, especially a voice that doesn't know what it's like out here,” Anita said.
Assistance provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
