Northern Rivers Floods

I have not noticed any comments about these floods in the Forum so thought it may be of interest to pass on an actual experience from someone effected by them.

I live on the banks of the Oxley River which flows into the Tweed River. On Friday at 3.00 PM our river had fallen to 2 metres in 9 hours. At 9.00 PM it was 2.5 metres. 5 hours later it was 10 metres and by 10.00 AM on Saturday it was back to 2.5 metres. The locals say it is the worst in 19 years. Needless to say I was unprepared in bed as my house is 50 metres above the river bed and safe.

There is some major damage locally to the bridges etc. and the local bush fire brigade was hosing silt of the roads for hours after a front end loader had cleared the bulk of mud and debris. Farmers were phoning neighbours looking for lost cattle. Quite a few people who live on the 'other' side of the river and get access to their homes via privately owned bridges have lost them. There had no power for 17 hours so no internet to update news and no water - no pumps. Power was restored at about 7.00 PM just after we had cooked tea on the gas cooktop.

For ourselves we have lost fences I maintain to keep the neighbours cattle of our property and away from our Paulownia trees. The firefighter on the side of my dam was 3 feet under water. I mill in an area that has not been flooded since we owned the property and it had proved impossible to transpose the flood heights of 19 years ago in the village exactly onto our property. So much of the gravel bed for the sawmill was washed away. So were two gravel beds under stacks of drying timber but fortunately they did not topple and I have been able to relocate them. There were other minor damage including a few logs that floated off the property most are safe.

The only other significant result is that a reed bed near the top of our dam about 50metres long and 3 metres wide has moved towards the wall and is now floating in about 2 to 3 metres of water near the centre of the dam. It looks strange to me with a small tree growing out of it. I am concerned for the wild life that called it home as in it's original position it was surrouned by water an safe from foxes. Now it touches the bank and not as safe. I can't think how to get it back in place or whether I really need to. Any way there are more urgent matters at the moment and the ducks and swamp hens can relocate to another island reed bed still in the dam.

I count my self lucky and should be back in business in a few more days and have the fences repaird by the time the river drops to normanl levels and before whats left the neighbouring cattle can gain access to our property.