DARREN and Dearne Cooper planned a weekend fishing trip to the Gulf region but little did they realise it would turn into a dramatic trip.
Departing Mount Isa on March 12 and bound for Kowanyama making their way through numerous water crossing. Darren explained the water was high enough to reach the windscreen of their FJ Cruiser.
As they continued they spent two hours winching themselves out of a 60-metre long bog hole. Darren and Dearne eventually made it to the Mitchell River to do a spot of fishing.
Darren said the fish were not playing the game so they headed to the Lynd River crossing, which was about three metres over the crossing.
“We stayed there for a couple of hours on dusk with no luck with the fish. It started to rain, so we quickly packed up and headed back towards Normanton.
“After about 20-kilometres from the Lynd River it started pouring rain and our next crossing at a creek with no name was still about 60-kilometres away.”
When Darren and Dearne arrived at the creek it had more than doubled in size since their earlier crossing and would have ‘engulfed’ their car if they had attempted to cross.
“We had no option but to spend the night in the car praying the rain would stop, as we realised we were in the middle of whoop whoop.”
Darren said the rain did not stop until about 4am and by that time the far bank of the creek was an eternity away.
“We had limited fuel left for our trip home but decided to use our fuel reserve to find a station or someone with a satellite phone.”
After driving up the side roads Darren and Dearne found the only station in the area that was not cut off by swollen rivers. Highbury Station owners Beth and Colin Hughes gave the two a bed for the night.
“They knew it would be weeks before the rivers subside for us to return home,” Darren said.
“They kindly organised a charter flight from Mareeba to take us to Cairns so we could return home. They said they would look after our car until it we returned.”
