By Lewis Jackson
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia is considering setting up a disaster relief force to help relieve a military overstretched by regular natural disasters, the prime minister said on Tuesday, as towns in the country’s southeast were evacuated due to flooding.
The floods come after Australia endured some of its worst bushfires over the “Black Summer” of 2019 and 2020, followed by a devastating bout of flooding on the east coast in 2022.
Roughly half the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) 62,000 troops were involved in disaster relief over that period, a commitment which undermined its ability to defend the country, the Department of Defence said last year.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government was considering creating a standing reserve body, although the country needed to be flexible and use whatever assets it had on hand during disasters.
“Tragically in this beautiful country of ours natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more intense,” he told ABC Radio, ahead of a visit to Queensland state, which was hit by a cyclone just before Christmas.
“We were told that would be an impact of climate change, and unfortunately we are seeing that play out.”
Further south in Victoria, the state emergency service on Tuesday warned residents of Rochester, roughly 150 km (90 miles) north of Melbourne, it was too late to evacuate from rising floodwater as heavy storms caused flooding in 13 rivers in the state.
A 74-year-old woman trapped in floodwater nearby was rescued on Monday after a man swum out and helped her hold on for more than an hour until emergency services arrived.
Residents in the low-lying parts of the nearby towns of Seymour and Yea were also told to evacuate on Monday. While the rain has stopped, rivers are expected to rise for several days.
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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