In one of the most extraordinary rescue stories to emerge from Australia’s recent catastrophic flooding, a 66-year-old man has made history by becoming the first person ever airlifted from floodwaters in the Simpson Desert, one of Earth’s most arid regions.
Tony Woolford’s five-day ordeal in the Munga-Thirri-Simpson Desert represents just one dramatic chapter in what has become Queensland’s worst flooding event in over half a century, transforming vast stretches of normally bone-dry outback into a muddy inland sea that has claimed over 144,000 livestock and isolated entire communities for weeks.
A Rescue Without Precedent
Tony Woolford’s adventure began as a routine three-day exploration of the Madigan Line, a popular 4WD track through Queensland’s remote interior. However, when unprecedented rainfall turned the desert track into an impassable quagmire, the South Australian found himself trapped in rising floodwaters with no phone service and nowhere to go.
Don Rowlands, a 76-year-old desert ranger and lifelong Birdsville resident who coordinated the rescue, described the event as unprecedented in his 31 years of experience. “Anyone rescued from floods in the desert… no, not that I can recall. I think this is the first time you’ve known?” Rowlands noted, emphasizing the extraordinary nature of flooding in a region typically characterized by dunes and scorching heat.
Woolford watched helplessly as floodwaters rose to within a meter of his vehicle refuge before helicopter crews successfully airlifted him to safety on March 26. “I thought I would float away,” he later told broadcasters, describing the surreal experience of being surrounded by water in one of Australia’s driest landscapes.
Unprecedented Rainfall Transforms the Outback
The flooding that trapped Woolford represents part of a much larger weather catastrophe that has reshaped Queensland’s interior. Beginning on March 23, a series of weather systems brought monsoonal rains from Australia’s tropical north deep into the arid interior. Some areas received more than 400 millimeters of rain in a single week, equivalent to an entire year’s typical precipitation.
The deluge has created flooding twice the size of Victoria, with water levels in some locations exceeding those recorded during the historic 1974 floods. Satellite imagery shows vast river systems that are normally dry channels now clearly visible from space, with the Diamantina River, Cooper’s Creek, and Eyre Creek all experiencing major flooding.
At Birdsville, the Diamantina River rose nearly four meters in just 24 hours, reaching levels of 8.65 meters, making it one of the town’s largest flood peaks in recent decades. The town has been completely cut off for more than a week, with supplies being flown in weekly and the famous Birdsville pub maintaining beer stocks via its aircraft.
Devastating Agricultural Impact
The human drama of rescues like Woolford’s represents only one aspect of this natural disaster’s impact. Queensland’s Department of Primary Industries estimates that over 144,000 livestock—primarily cattle, sheep, and goats—have been killed by the floods. This figure continues to rise as floodwaters recede and reveal the full extent of the damage.
Beyond livestock losses, the flooding has destroyed over 3,000 kilometers of fencing and more than 4,000 kilometers of private roads. Entire communities like Jundah and Windorah have required helicopter evacuations, with at least 25 people airlifted from Jundah alone as the Thomson River burst its banks.
The psychological toll on rural communities is expected to be severe. Local officials report that landholders are already struggling mentally with the prospect of losing not just livestock, but generations of carefully maintained bloodlines and faithful animal companions.
A Land Transformed
Despite the immediate devastation, the flooding promises to bring unexpected benefits to this harsh land. The normally dusty plains around Birdsville are already showing lush green growth, and desert rangers expect an explosion of wildflower blooms once waters recede.
Much of the floodwater is slowly making its way toward Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, Australia’s lowest point, where it will transform the typically dry salt pan into a temporary lake before eventually evaporating back into the atmosphere.
While communities face weeks or months of isolation as they wait for floodwaters to recede and roads to reopen, the event serves as a stark reminder of nature’s power to transform even the most arid landscapes into temporary waterworlds, creating rescue scenarios that veteran desert rangers had never imagined possible.