Western Australia’s stores of goods could be tested after flooding damaged the TransAustralian Railway over the weekend.
Large swathes of the east-west freight rail in South Australia have been washed away or submerged by heavy rain from an ex-tropical low which moved over the state.
Some 48mm of rainfall was reported in six hours at Port Augusta on Sunday by the Bureau of Meteorology.
Australian Rail Track Corporation said the rail would likely remain closed for more than one week.
“The corridor between McLeay and Bookaloo has been significantly impacted, with track washaways of up to 100 metres in some locations,” they said.
“ARTC crews are currently inspecting the network between Crystal Brook and Broken Hill as well as Port Augusta to Whyalla to determine the full extent of the damage.
“The weather system is moving east and dissipating slowly. However, further heavy rain is forecast in the Junta area which may affect the Broken Hill line.
ARTC said more heavy rain on the horizon could exacerbate the situation.
The rail is responsible for about 80 per cent of intrastate freight into Western Australia.
Western Roads Federation chief executive Cam Dumesny said closures beyond one week would start to
“Supermarkets have storage for about one week in Perth these days,” he said.
“If this closure goes on for longer than a week, it could be a problem.”
Mr Dumesny said Main Roads and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services worked well with industry in Western Australia.
However, he said dealing with agencies across borders proved a greater challenge.
“The broader issue is we have had multiple freight disruptions over several years,” he said.
“We are good at the response to a crisis, but we are not doing anything about reducing the risk going forward.”
Housing Industry Association executive director Michael McGowan said the rail was no longer fit for purpose.
"We understand that weather events are changing and becoming increasingly unpredictable, which is even more reason why we need a long term solution for the reliability of the east–west rail network — not another patch up job that simply gets us through to the next event,” he said.
“This is no longer an isolated issue.
“The rail line has now been impacted three times in the past three years.”
