Minute With The Mayor Ramon Jayo 13 January

So after 16 days straight, we can all take a breath and relax.

Up to 1240mm fell in places within our district from Boxing Day 2025 to 3 January 2026, and then dealing with Tropical Cyclone Koji for a week. Fortunately, Tropical Cyclone Koji decided to leave us alone, which was a tremendous relief, but our thoughts and prayers are with the impacted residents to the south.

It has been a long and protracted exercise to this point, and the fact is that the wet season has only just started. So, we are definitely not out of the woods for now by a long shot.

We still have at least two months of potentials to consider.

I want to thank you all for your vigilance and efforts in remaining aware and prepared. You heeded the warnings, prepared, and went about your business in the knowledge that you could deal with the events unfolding, a confidence that you achieve when prepared.

Preparedness is your best form of protection, and having said that, I really want to thank all the emergency groups and agencies who have been resident in our district since essentially 29 December 2025, when the first threat of flooding arose.

Additional police, ambulance, swift water, and volunteer State Emergency personnel were pre-deployed into our district in readiness for the flooding expected from the earlier rain event, and given the behaviour of the river, quickly followed by the cyclone threat, the opportunity to stand down did not materialise until the 11th of January, 2026.

Most personnel came from afar, so were away from their homes and families for extraordinary periods, watching what this river of ours was going to do.

We sincerely thank you for your assistance and efforts.

Thank you also to all the Hinchinbrook Shire Council staff who returned to work early from their planned annual leave to undertake the necessary work to keep our communities safe. Your assistance was critical.

As I said previously, the wet season has only just begun. If anything, Tropical Cyclone Koji proved a very valuable training exercise for us all in preparedness, and we will continue to monitor our wet season developments as our new year progresses.