AIR Force personnel from No. 79 Squadron at RAAF Base Pearce have teamed with caretaker staff from RAAF Base Learmonth to aid about 70 people stranded by floodwaters in Western Australia.

The people, including 20 local children returning from a Brownie excursion, were isolated when severe flooding along with a motor vehicle accident cut the Learmonth to Exmouth road about 1.30pm on June 3.

Local police and SES workers in Exmouth were unable to reach Learmonth, an Air Force shadow base, owing to the rising water levels and deteriorating weather conditions.

As a result, Air Force caretaker staff member Flight Sergeant Phil Jones joined with members of 79SQN, on deployment to Learmonth, to provide support to those stranded when it became clear the road would not reopen that night.

"One of our contract cooks was heading to town that day when he came across a couple of vehicles stopped at a flooded part of the road," FSGT Jones said.

"It was only about 5km from Exmouth. You could see the town but the water was too deep to cross."

The stranded people and their vehicles were turned around and brought back to Learmonth by FSGT Jones and fellow personnel.

They were accommodated in the civil airport terminal opposite the RAAF Base until the floodwaters subsided.

Caretaker staff provided stretchers and bed linen, while Pearce-based medical staff on deployment with 79SQN were called on to provide medical assistance to an elderly member of the public and a young child.

Meals were provided by Transfield contract catering staff who were in Learmonth supporting the 79SQN deployment.

Air Force personnel kept police and the SES in Exmouth informed of the situation until the road was officially reopened mid-morning on June 4.

"We learn how to do incident management as part of out training and I thought we worked well as a team," FSGT Jones said. "It was certainly something different for us."

By Ben Caddaye and
SQNLDR Lindsay Dooley