Central Queensland has been hit by torrential rainfall and wild winds over recent days, following unfavourable weather coming down from Queensland’s north.

Central Queensland has reportedly had rainfall in excess of 150 millimetres.

It’s been reported that coal mines in the Moranbah region of the Bowen Basin have been impacted the most from the heavy downpour.

While central Queensland has been inundated by flash flooding over recent years, the latest round of unfavourable weather has caused issues for a number of operations across the coal sector.

BHP Billiton refused to disclose to ILN how the heavy rainfall had impacted on its coal operations in the Bowen Basin, but said it was monitoring the weather closely.

A spokesman for the company said BHP would report on any impacts the weather had caused when it released its operations report next month.

Meanwhile, QR National’s Goonyella rail network, which provides a key transportation link for coal mines in the Bowen Basin, was forced to close on Tuesday morning after flooding west of Jilalan caused damage to part of the 924km track.

The rail line reopened at 6pm on Wednesday night.

“Some flood-related damage occurred on track north of Gladstone overnight which affected services on the Blackwater network,” a QR National spokesman said.

Repairs were due to be completed yesterday with the track returning to operations at 2pm.

“There are no other service interruptions to the coal network,” QRN said.

The Goonyella system services about 30 mines and carries coal from the Hay Point coal terminal and the Dalrymple Bay coal terminal.

Contrary to reports circulating that the Dalrymple Bay terminal had closed, a DBCT spokesman confirmed to ILN this was not the case.

“DBCT has not shut and is, as always, open for business, subject to having trains to unload and ships to load,” the spokesman said.

“DBCT had been receiving trains up until the point of the closure [at Goonyella] but obviously, with no trains, no inloading.”

A Rio Tinto Coal spokesman said so far only the company’s Hail Creek mine had been impacted.

“Heavy rainfall has been experienced across much of central Queensland, including our Hail Creek mine,” the spokesman said.

“The site is working through its wet weather management procedures.”

Rio was currently making arrangements for the day shift crews to venture back to site as per normal roster.