Australia-1,000 cattle drown on one farm.

AUSTRALIA-ONE FARM LOSES 1,000 HEAD OF CATTLE.

Sarah Nelson, whose family runs Cowan Downs station 180km south of Normanton, estimates they’ve lost more than 1,000 head of cattle in the Queensland floods.

Continued rain in the Cloncurry River catchment is causing heartache for many cattle producers in the Gulf Country.

She says their country has been under water since the start of the year.

The property normally runs 8,000 head.

More stock losses are expected as cattle trapped between the Cloncurry and Dismal Channels, in the Gulf country, are unlikely to survive as disease and illness including hypothermia take their toll.

"We have received 698mm during January, and more than 130mm in February, and it is not only the rainfall we are receiving, but we are continually being affected by rain that has fallen to the south of us," Sarah said.

"Farther south, the Cloncurry district and headquarters of the Cloncurry River have received huge amounts of rain, and this has yet, to flow through our country."

Cowan Downs consists of 72,900ha (180,000 acres), and at the peak of the flood at the end of January some 40,500ha was underwater.

"The water has passed the highest levels set in the 1974 and 1991 floods and reached a new record at the end of January."

In a bid to save as many stock as possible, last week the family chartered a Jet Ranger helicopter based in Charters Towers at a cost of $900/hour to fly to Cowan Downs to do a fodder drop.

The Nelsons had stockpiled a significant amount of fodder on their property in readiness for the wet season.

"My father flew from Charters Towers in the Jet Ranger leaving daylight on Tuesday and returned on dark Wednesday to drop fodder wherever he could."

And while Sarah says Cowan Downs has received its best seasonal start for 10 years, it is the prolonged rain falling to the south that is causing the majority of the flooding.

The Nelson family operates Cowan Downs as its growing country, while breeders are run 30km south on Beamsbrook situated on the Gregory River.