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Flour bagging plan defeated by floodwaters at famous Queensland pie factory

Cameron Atfield
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It seemed like a good idea at the time.

As the water crept across the car park at the famous Yatala Pies, the staff knew they had to do something.

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Bereft of sand bags, the quick thinking staff worked with what they had.

Flour. Eight hundred kilograms of flour.

Manager Heather Gay could laugh about it on Saturday as the clean-up continued.

"We just thought it would work," she said.

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"We thought we were brilliant."

The end result, Ms Gay said, was a sludge of wet flour mixing with the mud from the nearby Albert River.

"It would have been beautiful if it worked," she said.

The improvisation was needed because the flood was unprecedented. So unprecedented, in fact, that Yatala Pies has had to close its doors for the first time in more than 30 years.

"We've been custodians of business since 1986," Ms Gay said.

"This is the first time we've ever closed, apart from Christmas Day. 

Every item in that lost stock has so much human energy attached to it.

"We have never closed, even when we went from the old shop to here (when the Pacific Motorway was expanded in 2000), we've never closed."

Not even the devastating 2011 flood came close to ex-Cyclone Debbie's toll on the Yatala pie shop.

Then, Ms Gay said, the water only lapped the car park.

But when water came up to the famous shop's veranda, with high tide yet to come, Ms Gay said they knew they would not be so fortunate this time.

The clean-up started as soon as the water receded on Friday and was expected to continue for a couple of days.

And help had not been hard to find.

"This place is like our home and a lot of our staff feel that," Ms Gay said.

"We're a big employer in the area and we've had a lot of past employees over the period of time that have gone on to other careers.

"It's them who are stepping up as well. It's them who are sending the messages saying oh my gosh, I'll be there on the weekend'.

"A heap of old managers and old staff, and friends of people who work here.

"It's been overwhelming the support we've been getting."

About 20 centimetres of water inundated the building, claiming about 10,000 pies in the process.

"It's devastating to throw out so much stock," Ms Gay said.

"I always say to the boys, 'you take pride in your works, because someone grew it and someone cut it and someone refined it and someone packed it, so don't stuff it up here'.

"We take a lot of pride in our work and every item in that lost stock has so much human energy attached to it, so it's hard to throw it out and to know that we've now got to catch up."

That stock of pies in the cold room would take a long time to replenish once Yatala Pies reopened, Ms Gay said.

"Pastry is delicate. Pastry likes to set, so these are issues as well. Puff pastry, in particular, likes to have a little time to relax," she said.

"Then the pies themselves like to set for a day. It's not something you can instantly do."

Ms Gay said they were initially hoping for a Monday reopening, but Tuesday would be more realistic.

"We will be pushing out as many pies we can push out," she said.

"It was very emotional at the time, but our main focus is to get everything back up and running and everyone back working." 
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