Australia Weather News

The key transport route through Western Australia's north will reopen to general traffic on Friday as flooding from severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia continues to drain away.

Great Northern Highway is the only highway connecting the Kimberley region to the state's south.

It has been closed since Thursday last week, blocking essential supplies from being transported to towns north of Port Hedland, including Broome and Kununurra.

Record rainfall brought by Cyclone Zelia saw most of the road underwater, with authorities spending much of the week assessing the damage.

And with no alternative way to transport food north via road, supermarket shelves in the Kimberley have been grappling with dwindling supplies.

Purchase limits were temporarily introduced by Coles and Woolworths at their Broome stores.

"What we saw last week is some people panic buy and it took one of the supermarkets by surprise," Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said.

"With the road closure, fruit and veg ran out quite quickly."

Thirteen trucks hauling tonnes of fresh produce and fuel were granted permits to travel the highway under escort on Thursday, with additional supplies flown in across the Kimberley.

Main Roads has also been issuing permits to allow 53-metre road trains to make the 6,260km journey via South Australia and the Northern Territory, entering the Kimberley from the north.

It said another convoy of trucks will also be escorted from Port Hedland to Broome on Thursday.

Both major supermarkets confirmed they have begun restoring stock, but implored customers to only buy what they need.

Reopening imminent

Main Roads will reopen the section of highway between Port Hedland and Broome to general traffic on Friday.

It expects to open the northern end, between Broome and Pardoo, at 9am.

The remainder of the highway, from Port Hedland to Pardoo, is expected to open at 12pm.

Mr Dawson said escorts would likely be in place to ensure driver safety.

"There is significant damage on the road," he said.

"The likelihood is that if and when the road opens it will only be open during daylight hours for the moment.

"It's challenging in places to traverse so we want to make sure people are safe once the road is open and no one is put at risk."

Main Roads spokesman Dean Roberts said about 10,000 vehicles used the Great Northern Highway each day through the Pilbara, and about 400 of those were trucks.

"The Great Northern Highway from Perth to Wyndham is over 3,000 kilometres long; it's the longest highway in Australia," he said.

"It's a strategic freight link.

"It takes a whack, the industry, people, communities, they take a whack during a natural emergency like this."

He said the highway was "relatively unscathed" but there is damage east of Port Hedland where the De Grey River reached major flood levels.

"We've had a little bit of bitumen stripping which needs to be addressed, we've had a lot of shoulder scouring and general debris lying all over the place which needs to be cleaned up before we can open it to general traffic," he said.

Main Roads said it was also working to reopen road access to the inland Pilbara communities of Marble Bar, Nullagine and Warralong.

Mr Roberts said there were issues with debris over the road and damage between Port Hedland and Nullagine and on the Ripon Hills Road from Marble Bar to the Telfer mine turn-off.

"Those two roads, Marble Bar and Ripon Hills, might be able to be open to selective traffic by the weekend," he said.

"Hopefully by tomorrow, or the weekend at the latest, we'll be able to open it to trucks to allow proper resupply of Marble Bar."

"General traffic, again possibly the weekend but we just don't know at this point."