Channel Country transforms after record-breaking flooding in outback Queensland
In the land of boom and bust, an ancient landscape of sand dunes and river channels is transforming.
Record-breaking floods has parts of the Channel Country in south-west Queensland springing to life, a haven for flora and fauna across thousands of kilometres of inland waterways.
It's a silver lining of devastating flooding across the outback where it's estimated 13 million hectares of country went underwater.
It was only last year the terrain underwent a similar metamorphosis when water from ex-tropical cyclone Kirrily snaked south through the Channel Country to Lake Eyre.
But the scale of flooding this year was much more extreme.
Desert Channels Queensland, a community-based natural resources group, said 20 to 40 centimetres of top soil has been lost from significant areas of country.
"That will take a fair while to recover," operations manager Geoff Penton said.
Ecologist professor Daryl Jones from Griffith University expects there to be more pelicans than ever seen before in outback Queensland.
"This water will lead to unbelievable amounts of reproduction in plants and there will be some spectacular numbers of baby birds," Professor Jones said.
While pelicans are usually associated with the ocean, some head to inland lakes to breed.
They respond to floods, although Professor Jones said it was a mystery how they know which lakes are full and teeming with life.
"They have something that tells them 'let's go and fly across vast areas of land, from horizon to horizon, thousands of kilometres, to get to this mysterious place'," he said.
In outback Queensland, Lake Machattie and the old Diamantina Crossing at Birdsville are well known hotspots for squadrons of pelicans.
Across the border in South Australia thousands of pelicans will flock to Lake Eyre when it is full too.
Roads are reopening to isolated towns like Birdsville that had been cut off by floodwater for six weeks, but the Simpson Desert remains closed to visitors.
Park ranger and Elder of the Wangkangurru and Yarluyandi people from Munga-Thirri, Don Rowlands, said the blooming flora and fauna was spectacular.
"It's the best condition you can ever see it — the green grass, flowers, birds that are nesting and flying around everywhere," he said.
"How this country transforms just by adding water is beautiful.
Even more so than last year after ex-tropical cyclone Kirrily, he said.
"We've had a lot more rain this time and a lot more places that got watered. So I think the spread of green and flowers will be much wider," he said.
Photographer Ingrid Hendriksen recently flew over the Channel Country.
"It's like watching the land breathe again," Melbourne-based Ms Hendriksen said.
"I've photographed it before but this time it felt different. More dramatic.
"The contrast between parched earth and the large amount of flowing floodwaters was spectacular."
From the aircraft, she said the juxtaposition of how water brings life —yet isolation, stress and huge challenges — to the outback was confronting.
"This is the reality of life in the outback. It's raw beautiful, and at times, incredible tough," she said.
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