I was flying to Rocky to Townsville yesterday (Thursday) on a Dash 8 and I noticed an engineer in the jump seat.
When we landed in Mackay we were offloaded and told that we would have a short delay. I was due in Townsville to meet clients.
After 30 mins in the QP,we were told that the delay would be longer, so I made the decision (along with two of my clients) that we should head for Hertz and make a run for it.
It is a 4-5 hour drive from Mackay to Townsville, which would allow us to just make the meeting.
We got our bags offloaded and I grabbed a car (Fairlane due to being 5*) and got under way. There was very few cars left in Mackay and about 5 mins after I had organised this we were advised that all flights had been cancelled. You should have seen the stampede towards the rental car desk.
The Qantas staff were obviously not being told much info as they were as pretty upset with things as well.
They did announce that anyone holding a boarding pass could have whatever they wanted from the coffee shop. My companions & I stocked up on water, sweeties and pies for the trip.
The upshot of all of this is we made it to TSV on time (Just) but had no real help from Qantas.
I heard that they eventually bussed passengers to Proserpine and then flew them back to Brisbane from there. (Not confirmed)
Cheers
IainF