Winton producers still counting losses after Queensland floods

The stock on Werna were "pretty much wiped out" in the disaster and, 100 days on, beef producer Emma Forster and her family was slowly coming to grips with the new normal of post-flood life.

Simple things like finding tools in the shed are small reminders that the impacts of the flood will be felt for some time to come.

"We weren't able to save everything in shed," Mrs Forster said.

"Now you look for something and you don't know if it's washed away or if someone has moved it.

"We are still finding things in the creek where they have washed out.

"Because of that we still aren't sure of our total losses."

Despite these difficulties and the gruelling nature of flood recovery and repairs, Mrs Forster is upbeat about the future.

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The sight of grass growing through on the property doesn't hurt her mood either.

"We are slowly getting back to normal at long last. It definitely feels like we are moving ahead," she said.

"The country looks beautiful. There's a lot of feed and it looks like magic.

"It's a far cry from the devastation of a few months ago. It's very uplifting to see things like that."

All the external fencing on Werna Station has been either repaired or replaced, allowing the Forsters to start thinking about putting stock back in the paddocks.

It would likely take a couple of years for the less urgent internal fences to be put back up.

"We are slowly getting back to normal at long last," Mrs Forster said.

"The fencing isn't finished yet. That will take some time.

"But we have either replaced or repaired all the boundary fencing, and the internal ones we will work on.

"It might take a couple of years."

With fences slowly taking shape, the Forsters have been able to instead focus their attention on the daunting task of rebuilding their cattle herd.

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"We've done a lot of restocking and we've still got some infrastructure repairs to do.

"But we are getting to all those things piece by piece and we are feeling pretty good about things."

At least there was no shortage of pasture to keep the cattle happy, she said.

"Restocking has kept us really busy, trying to get new cattle on the place," Mrs Forster said.

"We've bought all tribes, breeders and steers. It's hard to remember when we had so much feed."

The Forsters were running a self-replacing herd on Werna before the floods and had recently bought new bulls.

"Because we were pretty much wiped out we are changing the way we operate.

"We were breeders and sellers, but now we have become buyers.

"We had a self-replacing herd, they were all cows that we had bred.

"We've lost a big chunk of that. We also bought new bulls before the flood event, we lost a lot of those too."

Friends and family had been incredibly supportive in the aftermath of the flood, Mrs Forster said.

"We are very grateful for all the support that we got over the last couple of months. It's been very uplifting."

Keeping the recovery in perspective and not dwelling on the disaster were crucial things to keep in mind, Mrs Forster said.

"We keep moving forward and looking ahead. You just have to pick up the pieces and move on.

"Everyone knows we won't be back to normal in one or two years. It will take time and you can only do so much in one day."

Queensland Country Life has documented this story and plenty of others in our souvenir edition available on Thursday, May 30.

Be sure to pick up your copy to commemorate this monumental event in our state's history.