Steve Posselt lives on a property at Swan Bay. He describes the impact of the latest flooding on farmland.
He wrote this on April 4 2025.

Steve Posselt, indyNR.com

Our property lies on the floodplain at Swan Bay.

Thearles Drain cuts through it about 2km from the river. There are also other drains running off Thearles Drain, some of which have been capped off at the main drain.

Over 30 hectares (75 acres) of trees were planted in July last year. This was a World Wildlife Fund and Carbon Friendly project with some of the planted species being for koala habitat.

The recent flood was about 2m deep which was a lot less that the 5m depth of 2022.

Unfortunately, when the rain stopped, the sun came out and it was hot. It rained again and now it is hot again. Thearles Drain had gone from black to green and now back to black.

Because the sky is blue the photo doesn’t really show how black the water is.

The Richmond River is too high at present to allow the water to escape so as you can see the drain is spilling out over the land.

This dead cane is the area to the left of the drain shown in the photo at the top of the page.

It is young cane which has fared badly. The paddock of soya bean adjacent to the cane has not fared any better. There is just nothing left. That was a healthy crop in front of the trees.

Inside the cardboard boxes, which have now been underwater three times, are trees that were planted in July. It looks like most are dead, but we don’t know. Some might just come back, up to a year later. The dead grass and black water are depressing.

I pulled the cardboard back to look inside. What I saw didn’t inspire me.

More alarmingly, I inadvertently touched my eyelid. A bit later it started to burn and did so until it was washed with saliva. That’s some pretty serious acid.

This is very sad but not as devastating for us as the poor farmer next door. He just purchased the property and was trying to get some cash back. That’s gone and we expect another deluge in two days’ time which will increase the water levels again.

This water, this dead, black, oxygen consuming water will keep flowing down to Ballina for another two weeks. What hope for fish? Devastated farmers, devastated fishers. We must reinstate the wetlands and compensate the farmers. The time has come. Enough is enough.

This article appeared on indyNR.com on 6 April 2025.