Floods destroy key rail and road links for coal

AUSTRALIA’S coal industry may be disrupted for months after key rail and road links were washed away in the floods, while some infrastructure could take years to repair, authorities said yesterday.

The floods have swamped mines in Queensland state, paralysing operations that produce 35% of Australia’s estimated 259 million metric tons of exportable coal.

“There are some aspects of the rebuilding of infrastructure that will take, potentially, years,” Major-General Mick Slater, chief of the flood recovery operation in Queensland, told a news conference in flood-hit Rockhampton town.