Community Enterprise Queensland has ensured the supply of food to remote Cape York communities during the wet season by using airplanes to transport essential freight.
The not-for-profit remote store operator usually delivers supplies to its supermarkets in the Indigenous communities of Kowanyama, Pormpuraaw, and Doomadgee by road through its truck network, but during the wet season, road closures necessitate the need for Community Enterprise Queensland (CEQ) to charter weekly flights to ensure these communities receive fresh food deliveries each week.
CEQ is a not-for-profit organisation responsible for providing goods and essential services to the Torres Strait, Northern Peninsula Area, mainland Aboriginal remote communities, and Palm Island through 28 stores. CEQ manages Islanders Board of Industry and Service (IBIS) and Aboriginal Business, Industry and Service (ABIS) stores, as well as other stores.
The organisation's chief executive Michael Dykes said wet season store planning starts eight months out and requires "detailed planning and scheduling to ensure everything runs smoothly".
"In a normal wet season year, CEQ would expect Doomadgee to be cut off by road for around six days, however this year it is nine weeks and counting," Mr Dykes said last week.
"Even the best laid plans need to remain flexible and nimble, as the weather in the Cape and Torres Strait can often dish up surprises, and this wet season has surprised everyone."
This year's particularly wild weather has called for additional fresh food deliveries, increasing CEQ's wet season freight cost for three sites - Kowanyama, Pormpuraaw, and Doomadgee alone - to more than $1.2 million.
"The aggregate model CEQ operates means the collective good of all stores in the group supports other stores when they have challenges," Mr Dykes said.
"The collective power of the CEQ model is currently enabling this significant cost to be funded for the benefit of our wet season stores. These costs are absorbed by CEQ and do not result in a price increase for customers."
CEQ has spent more than $735,000 on 27 separate air charters to Kowanyama, Pormpuraaw, and Doomadgee this wet season to date, delivering more than 85,000 kilograms of products to these communities.
"We see it as our commitment to communities that during the wet season we go the extra mile to ensure essential goods are supplied to the remote Cape York communities in which we operate," Mr Dykes said.
"Our supermarkets' warehouses and freezers are filled to capacity prior to the wet season arriving."
CEQ has been using planes planes in Kowanyama, Pormpuraaw and Doomadgee to get the necessary food supplies through to residents in these communities via air freight since December 2022 without increasing the cost of goods to customers.
"It's a complex and very specialised process which will impact on peoples' health if we get it wrong. We just won't compromise on our food safety standards," Mr Dykes said.
"Keeping our stores well stocked is particularly important during the wet season, as we're also often called upon to supply water and essential items in these areas as part of the state's disaster response efforts."
