Northern Territory emergency service workers have been responding to widespread flooding across the region, conducting rescues of residents and animals from inundated areas. The recent floods, some of the worst since the 1990s, have impacted communities from Katherine to the Top End, with further rainfall expected.
Schoolchildren, Families and Pets Rescued
Senior Constable Ben Parfitt was involved in escorting 27 schoolchildren from a caravan park flooded to waist-deep levels last weekend in Katherine. He also assisted in rescuing a couple and their German shepherd from the roof of a four-wheel drive, a rescue captured on viral video.
The high school students and their teachers were left without power, water, or food as their camping trip turned into a rescue operation. Parfitt and his colleagues transported them to a makeshift school shelter by boat.
“That 24-hour period was worse than the worst-case scenario the Bureau of Meteorology had predicted,” Parfitt said.
Rescues involved extracting people from dwellings cut off by floodwaters, with some boats carrying as many as 12 animals, and even assisting a cow by its horns.
Widespread Flooding and Evacuations
Two overseas backpackers have died amid the northern Australia floods, and a 51-year-old man was reported missing after entering the water from a houseboat on the Burnett River north of Bundaberg. Hundreds of homes, businesses, and cattle stations in the Northern Territory and Queensland have been flooded in the past week, forcing more than 1,000 evacuations across Bundaberg, Katherine, and remote Top End communities including Nauiyu, Nganmarriyanga, Beswick, and Jilkminggan.
Crocodiles have been spotted in residential streets in Katherine, and in Bundaberg, dozens of boats have been lost or swept away, with some found in cane fields and others stranded on rocky embankments.
LifeFlight and Heli-Muster NT have been conducting daily rescues, including one of a woman bitten by a snake her cat brought into the house. Heli-Muster NT also rescued a family of four and their four German shepherds from a remote campground east of Katherine.
Ongoing Flood Warnings
Major flood warnings remain in place for the Daly and Georgina rivers, as well as Eyre Creek, in the Northern Territory. In Queensland, major flood warnings are in effect for the Fitzroy, Flinders, Upper Balonne, Thomson, Alice, and Lower Condamine rivers and Cooper Creek. The community of Longreach, 1,200km north-west of Brisbane, has been advised to prepare to evacuate.
The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts continued rainfall, likely leading to more rapid river rises. Pretty much all of western NT is under flood watches, from Darwin to Uluru, in anticipation of widespread heavy rainfall.
Australia experienced its fourth-warmest year on record in 2025, and global heating, driven by fossil fuel emissions, is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.
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