‘A logistical nightmare’: flooding takes out sole rail link sparking West Australian food shortage

Western Australia's food supply crisis is "the worst in living memory" with the state's umbilical cord to the eastern states severed, not by Covid or border closure, but by extreme weather.

Flooding in South Australia has washed out more than 300km of the only rail line that brings food and supplies into WA from the east coast.

With border closures already isolating WA from the nation and the world, a one-in-200-year weather event is squeezing inbound supplies, leaving many supermarket shelves bare.

Staples such as pasta, sugar, toilet paper, medicines, sanitary items, some meats and frozen foods are running low but fruit, vegetables and milk that are locally produced are less affected.

Major supermarket chains, including Coles and Woolworths, were forced on Thursday to introduce buying limits on some products and the Independent Food Distributors Australia chief executive, Richard Forbes, said the crisis could continue for up to six weeks.

"This is the worst disruption to the food supply chain into Western Australia in living memory because of the reliance the food industry has on the Trans-Australian Railway," Forbes said.

The 100-year-old rail line runs for nearly 2,000km from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in WA and is the world's longest completely straight track.

"It's a logistical nightmare to try to solve because we now have to think how we are going to get 90% of our product that comes from rail transported in, in another form - and that's with trucks.

"In the trucking industry, we are short of truck drivers because of Covid and it's costing small business a fortune because of price gouging."

The Australian Trucking Association was contacted for comment.

The WA transport minister, Rita Saffioti, said a "rail bridge" had been established to allow normally prohibited 53.5 metre-long road trains with three semi-trailers attached to travel to Kalgoorlie. They are likely to arrive on Friday and depart for Perth two days later, with double road trains now allowed into the metropolitan area.

"We are getting more trucks and bigger trucks and we are looking at the shipping option," Saffioti said.

"I have spoken to Coles and Woolworths today and they have some committed shipping options, but they will take a while and it's really about making sure that the backlog of supply that is over there [on the east coast] can be brought over here.

"It highlights that we need to ensure that we have a more resilient east-west supply chain connection."

Saffioti said the rail line should be re-opened by 17 February and that air charter was also an option. She reassured people that there was plenty of fresh produce in WA.

A federal emergency meeting was discussing the use of defence ships and aircraft to transport products into the state, Saffioti said.

But Forbes said using boats and ports was a slow option. He is calling for compensation for WA food distributors who supply 6,500 venues, including schools, military bases, hospitality, care homes and hospitals.

He said thousands of tonnes of food was usually sent across the railway line every day and perishable items - such as dairy, cream, bacon and pork - would need to be dumped.

"The loss of revenue for food distributors would easily be in the tens of millions of dollars and these are family-owned warehouses," Forbes said.

Across Australia, poultry and meat products are already in short supply as Covid affects the workforce at meat processing plants and suppliers.

The flooding has also affected roads running up and down the country and the NT Road Transport Association executive officer, Louise Bilato, said that trucks were being forced to detour 3,000km through Queensland from Adelaide, affecting supplies into the territory.

"It's the perfect storm, unfortunately, because we were already compromised by the distribution of networks in NSW and Victoria impacted by Covid," she said.

Forbes said the issue wasn't going to be solved as soon as the rail line was fixed because it would take time to get the network up and running again.

A wave of Omicron cases is continuing to grow across WA that has forced hundreds of teachers and students into isolation in the first week of school.

Authorities and supermarkets are urging customers to be respectful and only buy what they need.

A Coles spokesperson said from Thursday, temporary limits were in place across all WA supermarkets, online and Coles Express stores to help manage demand for key items.

Items limited to one unit a customer include rapid antigen test kits and toilet paper. Regular pain medication is limited to two packets a customer as are chicken breasts and chicken thighs from the meat department, and sausages, tissues, flour, sugar, rice and pasta, among other items.

At Woolworths, a two-pack limit has been issued for flour, sugar, rice, pasta, eggs, and paper towels, among other items. A stricter one item-only limit applies to rapid antigen test kits and toilet paper.